The Center for Adoption Support & Education, Inc. receives the prestigious 2005 Adoption Excellence Award.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services awarded The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc. (C.A.S.E) the 2005 Adoption Excellence Award in the category “Support for Adoptive Families.” C.A.S.E. has been recognized for the extraordinary contributions it has made in providing support to help families adopt and promoting the stability of those adoptions through preparation and post-placement services for adoptive families.

“We are thrilled and honored to be selected for this prestigious award!" Debbie Riley, Executive Director, The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc.

Given annually since 1997, the awards honor states, local agencies, private organizations, courts, businesses, individuals and families for their accomplishments and efforts to increase the adoptions of foster children. The award winners were chosen by a committee representing non-profit adoption agencies, child welfare and adoption advocates, adoptive parents, foundations, businesses and state and federal offices.

“Providing exceptional support services is critical to the health and long term success of adoptive families”  Debbie Riley, Executive Director, The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc.

The dedicated staff at C.A.S.E. is recognized for their exceptional clinical work, advocacy, creative innovations, ability to maximize collaborations and partnerships, advancement of replicable treatment models and overall accomplishments in providing support to increase the stability of adoptive families as they move to permanent placement.

This year the Adoption Excellence Awards was presented to 21 recipients at a ceremony held November 1, at Union Station, Washington, DC held in conjunction with a kick off commemoration of National Adoption Month.

More information - click here.  And see the Press Release here.

C.A.S.E. Honored as a Congressional Angel in Adoption™

The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc. (C.A.S.E.) was selected by U.S. Representative Albert Wynn (D-MD) to be one of 180 Congressional Angels in Adoption™. This event is hosted by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) at a national ceremony held in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, September 13, 2005.

CCAI is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to raising congressional and public awareness about the tens of thousands of foster children in this country and the millions of orphans around the world in need of permanent, safe, and loving homes; and to eliminating the barriers that hinder these children from realizing their need of a family. The Angels in Adoption™ program was created in 1999 to raise public awareness of the many different ways that committed individuals can help children and families through adoption. There are millions of children around the globe in need of adoptive homes, in the U.S. alone more than 500 thousand children are in the foster care system with tens of thousands available for adoption.

Each year, CCAI invites all members of the United States Congress to participate in the Angels in Adoption™ program as it is a unique opportunity for federal legislators to recognize individuals from their home states who have improved the lives of foster children and orphans. Additionally, this year’s National Angel in Adoption award recipients include Victoria Rowell, award winning actress and founder of The Rowell Foster Children’s Positive Plan, and Jars of Clay, the multi-platinum, Grammy Award winning recording artists and founders of Blood: Water Mission. Jars of Clay will also be providing this year’s entertainment and President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of the Angels in Adoption™ gala. Since the program’s inception in 1999, members of Congress have awarded over 720 congressional Angels in Adoption™ from all 50 states and invited them to attend the extraordinary awards banquet in their honor. This year more than one hundred and eighty members of Congress have participated, including U.S. Representative Albert Wynn (D-MD).

“We are thrilled and honored to be selected for this prestigious award. Providing exceptional support services is critical to the health and long term success of adoptive families” Debbie Riley, Executive Director, The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc.

C.A.S.E Featured on Fox 5 News

C.A.S.E. Co-founder, Kathy Dugan and her family were featured on FOX News on Friday, January 7, 2005. The overwhelming number of children who have been orphaned because of the tsunami disaster has piqued interest in adoption in the United States and other countries. While these orphans are not currently available for international adoption, there are many children living right here, in foster care placements, who are in need of permanent adoptive homes. Kathy and her husband, Mike are parents of twelve children, eight of whom were adopted. Kathy and two of her sons who were adopted, Bryan, 17 and D.J., 15, shared the joy they have experienced as an adoptive family.

Kathy told the FOX reporter, “Many prospective adoptive parents fear adopting children from the public child welfare system because of the problems the children may bring as a result of their traumatic pasts. These folks need to know there are resources available to help them with those challenges.” Recognizing the potential challenges faced by adoptive families, Kathy and Mike Dugan, with Executive Director, Debbie Riley established C.A.S.E. in 1998 to provide the clinical and educational support adoptive families need.