What We Do
The Way Home Adoption provides adoption recruitment and matching services focused on older youth in foster care. We assist youth in care by working on individual cases with a child-centered approach. We collaborate with CPS and traditional Child Placement (adoption) Agencies by including their youth in our program. We support potential parents by giving them the opportunity to know youth so they can make an informed decision about adoption. And we are a service for our community, eliminating the number of children that will age-out and become a startling statistic in our society.
HOW WE’RE DIFFERENT
We work with the kids for whom traditional adoption efforts have failed.
We focus on recruiting the right family for each child, utilizing child-centered recruitment techniques.
We focus on individualized recruitment and opportunities for self-selection in the matching process.
We do not provide adoption licensing. Unlike traditional adoption agencies, we do not receive government funds for our work.
all that matters
The Way Home Adoption focuses on youth who are lingering in foster care and are at risk of being emancipated with no stable or safe environment. There are more than 11,000 children in Texas, and 1,100 will age out this year. The Way Home Adoption is the only organization in Texas focusing exclusively on these youth.
What We Believe
We have core beliefs that shape the framework for our program:
We believe that every child, regardless of age, deserves a family.
We believe that living in a permanent home has the power to change the trajectory of a child’s future.
We believe in family preservation. When able to provide a home free of abuse and neglect, reunification with biological families is our first priority.
We believe in preserving and supporting a youth’s current community while providing opportunities to expand their network of support.
We believe our youth have a voice that should be heard. We listen to their desires and preferences and use those to guide our recruitment efforts.
We believe that a natural bond is the best beginning to a successful forever. Youth and potential families are given the opportunity to connect without any conversations or commitments to permanency.
We believe children thrive in spaces where they can learn about their strengths, gain confidence, and experience environments outside of foster care. We create enrichment events geared toward the youth we serve, while allowing them to organically connect with potential families.
We believe that ordinary people can impact the life of a youth. We believe children can connect with volunteers and forever families despite a person’s financial bracket, gender identification, sexual preference, education level, marital status, or color of skin.
How we do it
The Way Home’s strategy is comprised of three distinct areas that work simultaneously to generate the highest likelihood of finding forever families and creating sustainable bonds. Our program is based on evidence from adoption programs around the country and is shaped by the feedback of our potential parents and the youth we serve.
reconnection
The Way Home Adoption begins by reviewing a child’s case file and conduct a diligent search to identify biological family members, former foster parents, or other significant adults from his/her past from whom the child may have been disconnected as well as adults in their current environments. When reconnection efforts are successful, a child leaves foster care, and these cases are closed and do not move forward into our recruitment program.
recruitment
If no positive past or current relationships can be found, we begin community recruitment. Community recruitment is done through social media, speaking engagements, and highlighting the youth in our Hearts Who Need Homes Gallery. Interested potential families then go through a series of requirements including a training, background check, and a one-on-one interview before having the opportunity to meet any of our youth.
Enrichment+ Engagement
The Way Home Adoption provides enrichment events for our youth that are outside their typical experiences. These encourage self-confidence, emotional growth, positive interaction with peers, teamwork, and community building with other youth and adults. After completing necessary requirements, potential forever families are also invited to attend to begin organic and natural relationships with youth.
Upon aging out, these children fare much worse than their peers.
If adopted before being emancipated, they are:
who we are
founders
Ashley Fields, LMSW
Co-Founder
Director of Programs
Kendall Monroe
Co-Founder
Director of Development
Staff
Sharon Cosimano
Director of Development and Operations
Laura Herbert, LMSW
Family and Community Recruitment Coordinator
Jessica Gottschalk, LMSW
Family Recruitment Coordinator
Terry Teros
Family Recruitment Coordinator
Kate Tamminga
Controller
board
Julie Knapp / Chair
Adam Faust
Brian Goodsell
Shantelle Jackson
Matt Merhan
Jamie Sava
Michael Schneider
Leah Taubman
Wakeford Thompson
Sarah Thornton Lewis
Ellis Williams
Angiela Zielinski