Minnesota Adoption Support and Preservation (MN ASAP) is a collaboration of the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network (http://www.mnadopt.org) and the North American Council on Adoptable Children (http://www.nacac.org/), funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. MN ASAP provides post-adoption information and support to adoptive families, kinship families, adoption professionals, and agencies across Minnesota through a three-tiered system of post-adoption support:
1. Adoption Information Clearinghouse
The MN ASAP clearinghouse offers the following services to families and professionals interested in adoption, including:
- Comprehensive adoption-related website that contains resources, referrals, fact sheets, statewide training information, and much more;
- Quarterly newsletter with articles about special needs, adoption and foster care support services, a training calendar, and other information to help families parent adopted children, as well as enable professionals to better support families;
- A phone line to answer questions from adoptive and foster parents, adoption professionals, prospective adoptive families, women interested in placing a child for adoption, and others;
- Directories of agencies, professional services, trainings, and other resources.
2. Training for Parents and Professionals
MN ASAP's training component serves families and professionals within the adoption community by:
- Building multi-disciplinary teams of professionals who enhance one another's professional capacity to serve adoptive families;
- Hosting training events for parents and professionals on issues common to adoption such as attachment, abuse and neglect, grief and loss, and others;
- Offering workshops at professional conferences for therapists, doctors, school counselors, and others;
- Identifying and publicizing training opportunities for current and prospective adoptive parents throughout Minnesota.
3. Parent Support and Respite Network
MN ASAP's network of Minnesota foster, kinship, and adoptive parents provide support to one another as they share the joys and challenges of parenting adopted children. MN ASAP's network function includes:
- Helping parent groups develop buddy programs that will pair families for mutual support and respite;
- Creating and enhancing parent support groups across the state;
- Supporting regional parent liaisons who will help foster, kinship, and adoptive parents find the resources they need;
- Identifying respite, therapeutic, and other resources for parents throughout Minnesota.
Link: http://www.mnasap.org/