Lund is really happy and proud to announce that the adoption department has received a renewal of the All Children, All Families (ACAF) seal awarded by the Human Rights Commission. From the ACAF website: “All Children – All Families, a project of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, provides a framework for agencies to achieve safety, permanency and well-being by improving their practice with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth and families. Participating agencies work to meet ten key Benchmarks of LGBTQ Cultural Competency – from client non-discrimination policies and inclusive agency paperwork, to staff training and creating an LGBTQ-inclusive agency environment. Once these benchmarks are met, the agency is designated a ‘Leader in Supporting and Serving LGBTQ Youth and Families’ and awarded the All Children – All Families Seal of Recognition.
Lund’s adoption department originally earned the ACAF seal in 2012, after a strategic effort which included staff education and training, paperwork overhauls, and looking at our practices. Each year the team works to renew the seal.
Lund’s adoption department serves LGBTQ+ youth and families all over Vermont (and occasionally out of state)—through Project Family (finding families for youth in foster care ages 8-17), Finalization (finalizing adoptions and facilitating guardianships), Post-Permanence (working with guardianship and adoptive families), Private Adoption (families wishing to adopt a child through Lund), and Options Counseling (serving pregnant people).
This was a top priority for the Lund adoption department over the last year—and the ACAF site gives the reason succinctly:
“A disproportionately high number of LGBTQ youth are in foster care, many having been abandoned by their families due to their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. These youth continue to struggle as they enter the child welfare system, where agency staff members often lack the skills and knowledge to provide them with the services they need and deserve. An estimated 2 million LGBTQ adults are interested in adoption in the U.S. But, the LGBTQ community is often an untapped resource when it comes to finding families for children and youth in foster care. Agencies can significantly increase their pool of prospective foster and adoptive parents by ensuring they have the policies and practices in place to welcome and support LGBTQ resource families and recruit effectively for these families.”
The seal is pictured on this page. You might see it in adoption staff email signatures, or displayed throughout the lobby of the Hoehl Family Building and the adoption wing. We are very proud to show it off and even more proud that the adoption department remains committed to continually bettering our work with these communities!
