NC Home Study

Heart of the Matter Seminars and the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) are offering a free learning pathway for professionals and for families adopting from Haiti. The pathway contains the following:

1.  The recorded version of “Layers of Trauma: A Webinar Featuring Dr. Bruce Perry” that was worked in conjunction with JCICS, Adoption Learning Partners and the Evan B. Donaldson Institute to bring to families.

2.  “Understanding Trauma in Children” is Heart of the Matter Seminars’ newest online course that offers user friendly science and practical parenting tools for parents.  It also addresses the impact on parents and other caregivers.

The learning pathway can be accessed here:  https://hotms.confedge.com/ap/registration/home.cfm?i=register&e=1ab47068-bea6-4868-967f-e35ad0c23232&grp=registrant

The following is from the Families for Orphans Coalition.

Families for Orphans Coalition: Call to Action

[Please note that NCFA is a member of the Families for Orphans Coalition]

On January 12 in the course of only 2 minutes thousands of Haitian children became orphans. Without a say in the matter, these children became part of a global crisis – an estimated 30 million children growing up without parents — vulnerable to slavery, prostitution, gangs, exploitation, and trafficking. These children need loving, permanent families, yet our government has no focus on finding families for orphaned children worldwide.  We must act now to help children worldwide grow up with parents!

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee have before them The Families for Orphans Act; a bi-partisan bill that would create a State Department office and more importantly a “Champion for Orphans” specifically to speak up for these children.  This Champion and the Office would build capacity in countries to enable families to raise their children at home instead of putting them in orphanages, or be adopted by loving parents first in their own country or else in another.

Growing up in a family is a basic human right.  The United States has a rich and successful history of protecting such rights all over the world.  When we have stepped forward to provide leadership in an area of great social need, the difference has been measurable.  The orphans of the world need this type of leadership and they need it now.

What Can You Do?

Call, write a letter or e-mail to your Members of Congress asking them to become Co-Sponsors of the Families for Orphans Act. You can find your Representative at www.house.gov and your Senators at www.senate.gov. Feel free to use the following text as a guideline: “As one of your constituents I am requesting that you support the “Families for Orphans Act” and become a Co-Sponsor of the legislation now. We would be better prepared to respond to the needs of orphans in Haiti if the leadership it calls for was already in place.  We hope you will consider standing up for the millions of children around the world growing up in orphanages without the love and support of a permanent family. For information on becoming a Co-Sponsor, please contact Senators Landrieu or Inhofe or Representatives Watson or Boozman.”

Call, write or email the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee and ask them to move quickly to pass the Families for Orphans Act.

Sign the Families for Orphans Act petition at www.kidsave.org.

Please help us move this bill NOW and give children worldwide a greater chance to grow up in a family. On behalf of the Families for Orphans Coalition and most importantly, the children, we thank you for helping.