Our first year at WCS is now over and I can confidently say that we have made a suc- cessful transition! We have experienced a very busy winter and spring with several birth parents having their babies, as well as many families being placed with infants from other states. Several of our Project CT’s Children families have recently had DCF children placed with their families, too. As we now approach summer, we are expecting this busy time to continue, since we will be having about 23 families from Lutheran Social Services (LSS) transferring to our agency. Sadly, LSS in CT will be closing their adoption program at the end of June after 142 years of providing excellent services. We are working to help make the transition as smooth as possible for these families. If you come to the annual picnic in July, you may meet some of these LSS families. You might also meet Lynn Gabbard, the LSS adoption program director, who will soon be joining our staff. Please join me in welcoming them into our “adoption circle”. For those of you who came to our pool party in March, it was wonderful seeing you! I was sur- prised at how many of you made the trip to Ledyard for this popular event. We had a record number of attendees- 115! I could definitely tell that we all had a bad case of cabin fever after such a rough win- ter. I hope you all will be able to make it to the picnic on July 12. If, for any reason, you did not receive your invitation, please email me and I will mail you one. Enjoy these beautiful summer days and see you soon. Warm regards, Sandra Couillard, LCSW Director of Adoption Services [email protected]CT Adoption Services 2 Clinic Drive Norwich, CT 860.886.7500 www.ctadoptions.org Don’t forget, if you’re a Facebook user, to “like” the page. We now cover CT Adoption Services news on this page. You’ll share in the community of people who care about foster care and adop- tion. Inside this issue: A Letter from Sandra Couillard 1 Project Connecticut’s Child 1 Save The Date 2 New Faces & Staff Changes 2 Adoptive families enjoying pool party 2 And Now we are a family of four! 3 CT Adoption Services News 4 Special Thanks to Our Donors 5 Resources & Support Groups 6 Project Connecticut’s Child: We recently received two grants to work with residents of the City of New London who want to adopt children from the state foster care system. If you or someone you know lives in New London and is interested in this type of adoption, please contact Sandra at (860) 886-7500 x355. You will receive personalized one-on-one services to help you navigate the state foster-to-adopt program. Other grants are also available for families throughout Eastern CT. Please join us for our free Adoption Information Sessions to learn more. The complete schedule of sessions is on our website: www.CTadoptions.org Spring 2014 Newsletter A Letter from Sandra: Connecticut Adoption Services a program of WATERFORD COUNTRY SCHOOL Websites for you to bookmark! CTadoptions.org Wcsfostercare.org Waterfordscountryschool.org
6
Embed
Connecticut Adoption Services...Adoptive families enjoying pool party 2 And Now we are a family of four! 3 CT Adoption Services News 4 Special Thanks to Our Donors 5 Resources & Support
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Our first year at WCS is now over and I can confidently say that we have made a suc-
cessful transition! We have experienced a very busy winter and spring with several
birth parents having their babies, as well as many families being placed with infants
from other states. Several of our Project CT’s Children
families have recently had DCF children placed with
their families, too. As we now approach summer, we
are expecting this busy time to continue, since we will
be having about 23 families from Lutheran Social Services (LSS) transferring to our
agency. Sadly, LSS in CT will be closing their adoption program at the end of June after 142 years of
providing excellent services. We are working to help make the transition as smooth as possible for
these families. If you come to the annual picnic in July, you may meet some of these LSS families.
You might also meet Lynn Gabbard, the LSS adoption program director, who will soon be joining our
staff. Please join me in welcoming them into our “adoption circle”.
For those of you who came to our pool party in March, it was wonderful seeing you! I was sur-
prised at how many of you made the trip to Ledyard for this popular event. We had a record number of
attendees- 115! I could definitely tell that we all had a bad case of cabin fever after such a rough win-
ter. I hope you all will be able to make it to the picnic on July 12. If, for any reason, you did not receive
your invitation, please email me and I will mail you one.
Enjoy these beautiful summer days and see you soon.
We recently received two grants to work with residents of the City of New London who want to adopt
children from the state foster care system. If you or someone you know lives in New London and is
interested in this type of adoption, please contact Sandra at (860) 886-7500 x355. You will receive
personalized one-on-one services to help you navigate the state foster-to-adopt program.
Other grants are also available for families throughout Eastern CT. Please join us for our free Adoption
Information Sessions to learn more. The complete schedule of sessions is on our website:
www.CTadoptions.org
Spring 2014 Newsletter
A Letter from Sandra:
Connecticut Adoption Servicesa program of WATERFORD COUNTRY SCHOOL
Websites for you to bookmark!
CTadoptions.org
Wcsfostercare.org
Waterfordscountryschool.org
Welcome Erica!
Erica L. Pelaccia, MSW joined our agency in November of 2013. She studied
Social Work at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN and earned her MSW at Ford-
ham University. Her child advocacy work began in the mid 90's when she spent
a year working with institutionalized children in Romania between the ages 0-3
years. During her professional career Erica has coordinated multiple interna-
tional adoption programs and supported families through the home study and
post placement periods. She has worked alongside birth parents and adoptees
in the domestic search and reunion process. Erica's passion and commitment to child advocacy work is
rooted in the fact that it is the fundamental right of every child to grow up in a family. Erica currently
works with both birth and adoptive parents in the Greater New Haven area.
Dawn Caruso, MSW is now working for both our adoption program as well as the
Therapeutic Foster Care program at WCS. At the end of December, Dawn joined
the Family Training and Support team at WCS. She is now teaching PRIDE
classes for new prospective foster and pre-adoptive parents as well as licensing
and reapproving WCS foster families. She has taken over leading the book dis-
cussion and the Lifebook groups (see below). Dawn has been a familiar face at
WCS because she has been a foster/adoptive parent and PRIDE trainer for
years! For our adoption program, she continues to provide in-home support to
pre and post adoptive families who are in the process or have adopted through
DCF. Dawn has a Master’s Degree from UCONN in Social Work. She and her husband have 6 children
and a dog named Precious. We’re happy to have Dawn nearby most of the week now!
Camp Clio
-A serious fun place for adopted
children Ages 9 –12
*Our third year and growing fast!
All–day or sleep-away (one or two
weeks)
June 29-July 5, 2014
July 6-July 12, 2014
Lyme, Connecticut
Camp Clio...Old fashioned sum-mer camp where adopted boys and girls share fun and discovery with other adopted children and adopted teenage counselors.
For information and registration visit our website
Www.CampClio.org
Scholarships available
NEW FACES & STAFF CHANGES SAVE THE DATE!
Adoptive families enjoying our Annual Pool Party in March.