National Reunification Month

2020 Reunification Heroes

Each year, we highlight parents, professionals, and youth "reunification heroes" who demonstrate the compassion and perseverance to keep families together. Special thanks to ABA Center on Children and the Law summer interns, Susan Weiss, Jeremiah & Helen Donier (veteran parents), John Marlow, JD, Martha-Elin Bloomquist, NCJFCJ, Commissioner Mark Hillman from King County who provided valuable input into the Reunification Heroes project, Chauncey Strong, Strong Training and Consulting, LLC, and Nora McCarthy, Tracy Serdjenian and Keyna Franklin, Rise.

Annette Appell

Debbie Flood

Wendell and Linda Green

Leslie Haws and Melissa Morales

Dena Garzone

Hiscock Legal Aid Society Article 10 Team

Calvin Martin

Jessica Martinez

Alexandra Roark

Edwin Taveras

Kelley Traver

Cassandra Walters

Sharon

Lifting Up Youth Voices

We Are The Lucky Ones

Four youth from Legal Services of New Jersey's Reunified Foster Youth Program share their powerful reunification stories.

New Resources

New Jersey Family Unification Day Celebration

An Imprint article highlighting New Jersey's 2020 Family Unification Day virtual celebration to honor families who have successfully prevented removal, or been reunified with their children after involvement with the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

A Day to Remember

In this Rise article, Keyna Franklin recounts the day her four children came home from foster care, a day she waited a year and three months for after successfully completing services to allow their safe return.

Visiting with Kids in Care While Still At Home

Learn how Lutheran Family Services of Virginia uses visit coaching to foster strong relationships with everyone involved in family visits, even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Coping with Visits During COVID-19

Guidance for parents on visiting children during the pandemic, with a focus on parents' right to visits, self-advocacy tips, and how to help children cope and make the most of virtual visits.

Foster Care as Support to Families

The Children's Bureau released a new Information Memorandum in April 2020 highlighting the importance of foster care as a support to families working towards safe and successful reunification. The IM calls for communities to build and support relationships between resource families and parents as a way to engage parents and build their protective capacity, promote timely reunification, and strengthen child and family well-being.

Permanence Can Mean Going Home

An article from the National American Council on Adoptable Children focusing on reunification with parents after termination of parental rights as a permanency option for older youth in foster care.

Georgia's New Reunification Manager Position

Georgia is making family reunification a statewide priority with a new reunification manager position.

Partnering With Birth Parents to Promote Reunification

A publication by the Child Welfare Information Gateway focusing on strengthening partnerships between birth parents, foster parents and relative caregivers.

Children's Bureau Highlights Reunification Month

A special edition of the Children's Bureau Express highlighting National Reunification Month. Articles explore how the child welfare system can strengthen and support families and promote safe reunification; the importance of recognizing family in trying times; lessons from 10 years of National Reunification Month; understanding what keeps families together; how multidisciplinary representation promotes reunification; and more.

How Holistic Legal Representation Supports Reunification

Rise talks with Marty Guggenheim, professor of clinical law at NYU Law School, co-director of NYU Law School’s Family Defense Clinic and co-author of the study “Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare.”

TIPS for Parents with Supervised Visits

Resources for parents on making the most of supervised visits.

Icebreakers: Tapping into the Power of Families Supporting Families

An article describing a practice that is successfully being used to open communication channels between birth parents and foster parents - known as Icebreakers meetings.

Rise Magazine National Reunification Events

Newsletter highlighting 2019 national reunification month events.

Equipping Foster Parents to Actively Support Reunification

An article about preparing and supporting foster parents to help work toward reunification—whenever reunification is the goal—and to feel supported after children return home.

Resource Family Tip Sheet for Supporting Reunification

Tips and themes drawn from interviews with foster families who are outstanding supporters of reunification.

Parent Partners: Resources for Families, Teams, and Systems

An article highlighting how parent partners support reunification and strategies for practitioners seeking to design and implement parent partner programs in their communities.

More Resources

Webinars & Videos

All in for Reunification 2021

A webinar for foster care managers about Reunification Month to get them interested in honoring families in their states, and professionals who assisted them, throughout the year. This year's theme is "All in for Reunification 2021" and the goal is for every state to participate this year. Held March 25, 2021.

A Judge's Perspective on Family Reunification

Judge S. Trent Farve discusses changes he's made in his court to help families work towards reunification, including more frequent permanency hearings, engaging with community partners, and using trauma-informed practices.

Tips for Supporting Parents in Supervised Visits

A video by Rise Magazine with tips from parents who have navigated the child welfare system on supporting parents in supervised visits.

Foster Care: A Path to Reunification, part 1

This podcast shares the work of the Center for Family Life, an organization that aims to stabilize families by providing an array of neighborhood-based family and social services in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Legal Services NJ Family Unification Day Videos

4 videos from LSNJ's 2018 reunification day event honoring parents who have been reunified with their children after involvement with the child welfare system.

Birth Parent National Network Webinar

A webinar held on Thursday June 28, 2018. Center staff attorney Mimi Laver presented highlights from national reunification month efforts.

Equipping Foster Parents to Actively Support Reunification

AdoptUsKids' webinar held May 23, 2019 with strategies to develop and support foster parents to actively support reunification as a permanency goal for children in their care.

Multidisciplinary Representation and its Positive Impact on Reunification

This webinar highlights the benefits multidisciplinary legal teams, explains the Children’s Bureau recent decision to invest federal IV-E dollars in the multidisciplinary legal representation model for parents and children, shares a 2019 study on this model, and explains how this model supports child welfare agencies and most importantly, children and their parents.

Rise's 2020 Reunification Month Video

This video is for child welfare-impacted parents, by parents who have had similar experiences. It was developed collaboratively by the ACS Workforce Institute, NYC Parent Advocates Council and Rise leaders.

Coffee with Caregivers: National Reunification Month

Join Irene Clements, National Foster Parent Association, as she discusses National Reunification Month with Chauncey Strong, Executive Director of Strong Training and Consulting, LLC. Mr. Strong is a child welfare advocate with more than 26 years of child welfare experience specializing in foster care and adoption.

Foster Care: A Path to Reunification, part 2

This podcast explores the partnerships, trainings, and coordination within San Diego County’s Children’s Services. Learn about trauma-informed assessment tools, collaboration with a county-based community college to support training, and experiences from birth families and older youth.