What a crazy few weeks it’s been for Choice Network! Since the last post in February, we welcomed babies number 13, 14 and 15! On top of that, we attended the ACN conference and made some amazing new connections. We also received the HRC All Children-All Families Seal of Recognition for adoption agencies presented by their Family Project President, Ellen Kahn.
We cannot believe we received this award already! Four months ago it was only a faint dream, and we were told it has taken some agencies as long as two years to complete the process.
To receive this award, HRC requires that you satisfactorily meet a minimum of ten “Benchmarks of Cultural Competency”. Some of these include:
-LGBT culturally competent client and employee non discrimination policies
-LGBT cultural competence employee training
-Holding professional partners to similar LGBT competence standards
-Editing, creating, and utilizing culturally sensitive and inclusive language for forms, marketing materials, etc.
-Creating and implementing LGBT specific family training.
-LGBT cultural competence employee training
-Holding professional partners to similar LGBT competence standards
-Editing, creating, and utilizing culturally sensitive and inclusive language for forms, marketing materials, etc.
-Creating and implementing LGBT specific family training.
This was not the easiest process, especially for such a small agency like ours. We don’t have a lot of extra hands to help with all the changes, but we rallied together and powered through with a lot of help from HRC, The Downs Group, and community support.
As a staff we traveled to Michigan to engage in the HRC's approved LGBT Cultural Competence training. We learned so much and met many like-minded individuals eager to do similar work in their areas. We changed all of our documents and policies and had to have them approved; we edited our website, and even created new brochures. One of our brochures was even signed by popular comedian Ross Mathews who is a staple on both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and E!’s Chelsea Lately!
We also created a new training specifically to help LGBT families while they are on their unique adoption journey. This included a lot of help from the community including legal experts, LGBT marriage and family counselors, and advocates. We also had the privilege of placing with our first lesbian family. They are an amazing couple and fantastic parents- we are so happy for them!
Toward the end, everything happened so fast- we submitted our official completion document on Monday and by Thursday we were receiving the Seal of Recognition from the HRC Family Project President!
That alone was an amazing experience: joined by our colleagues, partners, friends and our first LGBT family, Ellen Kahn talked with us to hear our story, praised us for our work, and presented us with the Seal! She was fantastic and we felt so honored to have her take the time to meet and recognize us.
It was a whirlwind experience- we accomplished more then we had hoped in such a short amount of time and now we are excited about what is next for Choice Network! This summer we are looking forward to sharing our exciting news at Pride and in the fall we are honored to participate in a multidisciplinary LGBT family creation seminar!
Stay tuned, seems like there’s no stopping us now!
Love,
Your Choice Network family
Your Choice Network family
