Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York

The Coalition occupies a very unique space within the New York state Child Welfare ecosystem. We are not a child placing agency, nor are we are government entity nor are we a parent run organization. Instead we are the bridge that connects all and can facilitate communication and collaboration between all players.

Our Goals are to:
Educate and support foster/kinship care/adoptive parents and the professionals who serve them by utilizing information-sharing, services, peer support and referral.
Improve services available to children and families.
Increase citizen involvement in local service planning and delivery.
Educate leaders and stakeholders about the realities, challenges and rewards of foster/kinship care/adoptive parenting.
Advocate for greater support of foster/kinship care/adoptive families by federal, state and local agencies.

Within our sphere of understanding, we have the ability to identify an issue though our HelpLine calls, or interactions with the families we serve. We can than poll and survey other families through the state or are to further examine the problem and find possible solutions. If no solution is available, we work with other organizations to developed the service or training including working with state legislators if policy change is required. An example of this would be the Coalition's long standing advocacy for post adoption support services:

More than a decade ago, a vision of statewide post-adoption support services for families and young people came into being at the Coalition. We made the case with legislators. We talked with leadership at the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. When we learned there was no viable data on what services would best support families, we partnered with Cornell University to conduct a statewide survey of adoptive parents. In the winter of 2009/2010, a survey was developed to help determine the post-adoption services needs of families in New York. The final report, Parents and Professionals Identify Post Adoption Service Needs in New York State, included information on current programs in NYS, research on post-adoption service needs of families, the survey results, and recommendations for future services. This survey remains the only one of its kind in New York. A direct result of the survey was the state’s implementation of Regional Permanency Resource Centers. In 2016, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) launched the Regional Permanency Resource Center initiative. The Coalition was one of twelve organizations chosen to initiate regional post-adoption and post-guardianship support programs. It was then that our Adoptive and Guardianship Assistance Program for Everyone (AGAPE) came into being.

Since then, AGAPE has grown to serve nineteen counties, one-third of all counties outside of New York City and every county in the state now has post adoption support programs.

For the families who desperately need support, and for the children and youth who need and deserve the stability of loving, permanent families, we opened up additional offices in Long Island and Ithaca. The Coalition’s staff grew from one employee under an Executive Director to over twenty-five in order to meet the needs of the program. We continue to grow to meet the needs of the families though the state with expnading progmas, locations and staffing.

Completed Projects at a Glance:


30 years of NYS foster Care and Adoption Conferences
Caregivers Support Project: Supporting Families Parenting Children with Developmental Disabilities (2007-2009)
The Coalition’s AdoptUsKids Recruitment Response Team (2004-2009)
LINK Families: Linking Information Networks for Kids (2001-2005)
CoalitioNet: Networking for Adoption (1997-2001) pdf
Meeting Children’s Needs in Transracial and Transcultural Adoptive and Foster Families(1997-1998)
Adoptive Parent Groups: Leadership for Children and Families (1993-1995)
Adoptive Families for Minority Children: Parent Group Recruitment and Support (1991-1992)
Parents as Partners: Serving Special Needs Adoption (1990-1991)
Parent Groups “CAN” – Activities included hosting the first annual New York statewide adoption training conference for adoptive and foster parents, caseworkers, administrators, mental health professionals, and advocates. (1989-1990)
Developed and implemented the first statewide adoption exchange and model curriculum for training adoption caseworkers in conducting group home studies using adoptive parent casework partners. (1982)