Something near and dear to my heart.     

Wanted: Parents Adopting Teenagers

A new American RadioWorks documentary, "Wanted: Parents," profiles several Minnesota teenagers who agreed to try once more to trust a family. The documentary presents the story of a brother and sister looking for a home, and includes the voices of other teens, foster parents, adoptive parents, social workers and child advocates.

"Wanted: Parents" will air Monday, November 5th during the noon hour of Midday. A live audience will listen to the program in the UBS Forum and then participate in a discussion broadcast from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Lead producer Catherine Winter will moderate a panel exploring what can be done to prevent young people from leaving their foster homes only to wind up in homeless shelters or back with the very families they were taken from in the first place. Panelists will discuss the challenges and the rewards for families willing to open their homes and their hearts to older children.

Panelists will include one of the teenagers featured in the documentary and her adoptive parents, and Michelle Chalmers of the Homecoming Project, which tries to find families for teens.

The link to the web page is here

Also of interest:

On her own – the story of a youth in foster care who "aged out"

A Family Apart – the story of one family’s journey

A Third Chance – the story featured on the broadcast about a sister and brother in system

They Deserve More – feature of a child specific adoption recruiter (the program my current position was based on)

A Place to call home – the story of a waiting child