MN ADOPT is now Foster Adopt Minnesota

MN ADOPT is now Foster Adopt Minnesota! As we start a new year, we are excited to also begin this chapter of our organization. Since 1980, we have focused on the goal of ensuring every Minnesota child has a safe and nurturing family. Over the years, we have had several brand identities as an organization.

We began Citizen’s Coalition on the Permanence for Children in 1980, when we were founded by a group of Minnesota adoptive parents in a Minneapolis garage. During this early phase of our work, our primary focus was on raising awareness about the need for families for Minnesota children in foster care. In 1992, we became Minnesota Adoption Resource Network (MARN), due to our expanding services to include an array of supports offered to the Minnesota adoption community. Over the years, Minnesota Adoption Resource Network came to be known informally as MN ADOPT, in reference to our primary contract with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. In 2014, we formally changed our name to MN ADOPT in recognition of this shift and to alleviate the confusion of having multiple names.

In recent years, we have continued to expand our work, with an increased focus on services designed to strengthen support for Minnesota’s foster and kinship communities. With this expansion, it became clear we needed a name that better reflects the scope of our work and that is more welcoming to all the communities we support.

Our brand update process has been a long and thoughtful one, with consultants, focus group surveys, and much internal discussion. While we considered many options, including inventive and more creative names, we decided to stay true to our history and the communities we support by having a name that descriptively reflects our work and speaks directly to the communities who are at the heart of our services.

Foster Adopt Minnesota also utilizes the acronym “FAM,” which is important to us because it represents our vision of Zero Kids Waiting for a permanent, loving family. Also, the information, education, and resources we provide reflect our value of family-centered support in order for children and their families to thrive.

• We support Minnesota’s foster families, so that children and their caregivers receive the support needed as work is being done to reunite them with their kinship families.
• We support Minnesota’s kinship families, formal and informal, with the goal of keeping Minnesota children with kin or close connections whenever possible.
• We support Minnesota’s adoptive families, so that when remaining with kin is not an option, children and their new families have the support they need.

For those who are new to our work, we encourage you to look around and learn more about how we can support you or those close to you.  If you’re already aware of our work, we hope that what you see continues to be familiar and welcoming.  While our name has changed, our services remain the same, with programming designed to provide information, connection, and resources to the communities we support.

• The Zero Kids Waiting Program is the gateway to information about adoption, foster and kinship care in Minnesota.
• The Fostering Network Program provides awareness, information, support, and referral to improve the safety and well-being of Minnesota children in foster care.
• The HELP Program provides support, guidance, and resource connection for Minnesota’s adoption, foster and kinship communities.
• The Post-Adoption Navigator Program shares information, resource, and referrals for a full year after the finalization of an adoption from foster care in Minnesota.
• The Education Program provides workshops on topics relevant to foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
• The Post Search Program provides information and referral to adopted persons, birth families and adoptive families who need records or have questions about the search process.

Thank you for your interest and support for our work. We look forward to this new and exciting chapter of our organization, and to continue finding new and innovative ways to support the Minnesota adoption, foster, and kinship communities.

~The Foster Adopt Minnesota Team