HHS HONORS CONSORTIUM FOR CHILDREN LEADER FOR ADOPTION EXCELLENCE
Kate Cleary Among 16 People & Organizations to Receive Award in Aug. 4 Ceremony

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. July 21, 2009 � The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has named Kate Cleary, Executive Director of Marin-based nonprofit Consortium for Children, to receive its annual award for adoption excellence. The award will be presented in a ceremony Aug. 4 in Arlington, Va.; the award ceremony will coincide with the launch of a new national TV ad campaign encouraging adoption of teens from foster care. 

The Adoption Excellence Award is given to 16 individuals and organizations each year who have demonstrated excellence in providing stable, permanent homes for America�s children in foster care.

 �I�m humbled by this honor and I�m grateful that our government is using this opportunity to shine a light on an important issue that needs our attention and our action,� said Cleary, who founded CFC in 1999. �More than 71,000 children in California are waiting in foster care for good homes and it�s our mission to help get them placed in permanent situations so they can thrive and build productive, happy lives.

 �Systems like the courts and foster care can�t parent � families do. Too often, older children go unadopted and �age out� of the system rather than being placed in sustainable, supportive adoptive homes. These kids later have a terrible time with poverty, crime, mental illness and more. We can and should put a stop to that.�

Consortium for Children (CFC) provides support and technical assistance to both public and private child welfare agencies. The organization specializes in Permanency Planning Mediation (PPM), a non-adversarial, neutral and confidential intervention that may be requested by anyone involved in the Child Welfare System. CFC is often called upon by child welfare workers, the courts or attorneys to mediate when it becomes clear that reunification efforts with the family of origin for a particular child or sibling group will not be successful and before any court action to terminate family reunification or parental rights begins.

CFC has successfully implemented PPM in 48 of California�s 58 counties. Additionally, the organization provides 22 states and counties with a comprehensive methodology for evaluating prospective foster, adoptive and kinship families. The organization also provides extensive training to public child welfare agencies in permanence, mediation and family evaluations.

 �This award is a wonderful opportunity for the community to learn about how many children and families need help, not only here in the Bay Area but also in California and across the nation,� said Neil Kreuzberger a member of CFC�s board of directors. �We�re proud that CFC can play a part in bringing families together and we�re proud that Kate Cleary has been recognized as a leading force on this issue.�

 About the 2009 Adoption Excellence Awards

In the United States, there are currently 496,000 children in foster care, according to HHS. Of these children, 130,000 are free for adoption and awaiting a permanent home.

 HHS established the Adoption Excellence Awards program in 1997 to recognize outstanding accomplishments in achieving permanency for America�s children waiting in foster care.  These awards honor States, child welfare agencies, organizations, courts, businesses, individuals, and families. 

Awards are divided into nine categories based on the type of positive impact they�ve demonstrated on adoption and foster care: Decrease in the Length of Time that Children in Foster Care Wait for Adoption;  Increased Adoptions of Older Children; Inter-jurisdictional Adoptions; Support for Adoptive Families; Individual and/or Family Contributions; Philanthropy and/or Business Contributions/Initiatives; Judicial or Child Welfare System Improvement; Adoption of Minority Children from Foster Care; and Media/Public Awareness of Adoption from Foster Care.

This year, the Adoption Excellence Awards will be presented at a ceremony Aug. 4 in Arlington, Va.  The ceremony will take place during a luncheon at the Children�s Bureau�s �New Strategies for Changing Times: The 2009 Meeting for States and Courts.�  The meeting brings together judicial and child welfare leaders who are committed to working collaboratively to create sustainable change in child welfare systems.  In addition to the awards ceremony during the luncheon, the Children�s Bureau, in Collaboration with AdoptUsKids and The Advertising Council, will launch their newest public service announcements encouraging the adoption of teens from foster care.

 About Consortium for Children

Consortium for Children provides support and technical assistance to both public and private child welfare agencies. CFC collaborates to design and implement strength-based family and community focused services for both stakeholders and consumers of the child welfare system. Consortium for Children currently has a full time staff of 12 and over 400 permanency planning mediators throughout California.

 Over the past five years, CFC has received more than 6,000 mediation referrals, successfully reached agreement in 5,500 of those referrals and helped provide early permanence for more than 18,000 California dependent children.

In 2002, Consortium for Children added the implementation of Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE), a uniform home study methodology, to their programs. Currently over 14 States, 5 Canadian Provinces have adopted the use of SAFE for use in evaluating prospective foster, adoptive and kinship families. In 2004 Consortium for Children was awarded a Federal Adoption Opportunity Grant to implement the use of SAFE use in 10 States plus the Cherokee Nation.

Also in 2004, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services and the State of California Department of Social Services, CFC began the Permanency Partner Program (also known as (P-3). The P-3 Program uses mediation to provide legal permanence for youth ages 12 - 18 with a case plan of Long Term Foster Care or Alternative Planned Living Arrangement.

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