National Family Unification Month

As part of the annual nationwide American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law’s Family Reunification effort, every June the ABA celebrates parents and their children, kin and families, caseworkers, attorneys, judges and others as Reunification heroes through national reunification events on the ABAs website, along with hosting webinars and events over the past 10 years. This year, the ABA is broadening our focus and attention on family unity to include celebrating "Unification Month" signifying the importance of preventing removals and separations whenever possible and keeping families intact through advocacy, supports and services.

2024 Events and Celebrations

On June 11th from 1-2 PM, the the New York State Child Welfare Court Improvement Project with the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) for Child Welfare and Family Court Practices, is hosting a live program to highlight best practices and the voices of people with lived experience of foster care and the child welfare system.

The UCONN School of Social Work will be holding a webinar entitled "Transforming Family Reunification: Enhancing Family Time, Engaging Fathers, and Innovative Collaborations" on Thursday, June 13th, from 1:30-3 PM ET. Register at the link below.

Prevent Child Abuse Arizona celebrated Maricopa County's 10th Anniversary of Family Reunification Day with a virtual event on June 15th under the theme "Rally to Reunify." You can watch the recording of that event here.

As part of the annual nationwide American Bar Association Family Reunification effort, Legal Services of New Jersey will host its 2024 Family Unification Day on Monday, June 17, 2:30 PM, at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. The event honors families and their heroes, who have successfully prevented removal, or been reunified with their children after involvement with the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP). More information will be available soon. Email [email protected] with questions or to register.

The Colorado Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel is co-hosting a special Reunification Month event on June 24, 2024 at Elitch Gardens in Denver, CO to recognize the collaborative efforts that help families stay together. The event will include special recognition of Reunification Hero honorees, remarks from local leaders, family activities and lunch. After that, attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy the theme park and water park for free with their families. Register at the link below.

Additional Resources

Why Celebrating Reunification Month Matters

This article highlights the importance of celebrating parents and maintaining families. It reminds that "[t]his month is meant to be a social justice call to advocates – a time to highlight the importance that families receive due process, protection of parental constitutional rights and that parental voices are integrated in every decision-making moment..."

Reunification: Providing Hope and Plan with Family Centered Treatment

A 2021 white paper on family-centered treatment, a home-based treatment model for families faced with forced removal of their children from the home or dissolution of the family due to external and internal stressors and circumstances.

New Center to Support Resource Parents

The Children’s Bureau has awarded Maryland DHS a grant to create a Center for Excellence in Resource Family Development (CfE): The CfE model trains and supports resource parents through an evidence-based intervention to work in collaboration with birth families to preserve and nurture critical parent-child relationships and support reunification.

Child Welfare Information Gateway Reunification Resources

Use these resources to help engage children and families in the reunification process, equip parents to resolve issues that led to family separation, help increase reunification rates for families from diverse backgrounds, and address racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare.

2024 Social Media Designs

Download the official 2024 National Family Unification Month logos for email, social media, and Zoom.

Congressional Black Caucus Special Order

On June 20, 2023, the Congressional Black Caucus issued a special order focusing on national reunification month.

National Reunification Month Social Media Toolkit

This toolkit provides easy copy/paste content you can adapt and use to spread the word about National Reunification Month, including hashtags, sample social posts, and graphics.

Children's Bureau Express Issue Spotlight on Reunification

The June 2023 "Children's Bureau Express" highlights reunification and the importance of supporting families as they work toward their reunification goals.

National Reunification Month Virtual Background

Download one of our National Reunification Month Virtual Backgrounds. Help promote family reunification during the month of June!

How foster parents can support reunification

An AdoptUSKids foster care and adoption specialist shares strategies around partnering with the birth families.

Additional Resources

2023 Reunification Webinar Series

Quality Improvement Center for Family-Centered Reunification: How to Improve Services and Speed Reunification for Families

This webinar, held June 29, 2023, provides an overview of the QIC-R and implementation sites located in Ohio, Kentucky, Montana, and New York. These sites are implementing and evaluating interventions designed to improve services for families and decrease the timeframe of reunification for families involved in child welfare.

What Child Welfare Agencies Can Do to Support Reunification Webinar

This webinar, held June 7, 2023, explores the role of child welfare agencies in supporting the connection between resource/foster caregivers and parents whose children are in foster care. It offers concrete ways child welfare agencies can be a partner in supporting reunification through this relationship and other practices.

Experiences in the Reunification Process Webinar

In this webinar, held April 19, 2023, panelists shared their experiences as parents, foster parents, and permanency workers and strategies to empower families and resolve barriers to reunification.

State Spotlights

Washington

For the first time since the pandemic, the Washington Supreme Court Commission on Children in Foster Care (Commission) is bringing together child welfare stakeholders to celebrate family reunification.

Hawaii

Hawai‘i will be celebrating its tenth National Reunification Month by honoring the Francisco-Kaleleiki ‘Ohana and the Lili‘uokalani Trust Ka Pili ‘Ohana program.

New York

The New York Office for Justice Initiatives’ Child Welfare Court Improvement Project hosted a two-day virtual series to celebrate National Reunification Month.

New Jersey

To mark their commitment to securing intact families and avoiding separation, Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) has celebrated Family Unification Day since 2017.

2023 Resources and Events

Many jurisdictions host reunification celebrations. See the following states for brief descriptions of recent and past events.

Alaska

UPDATED! Arizona

UPDATED! Arkansas

California

UPDATED! Colorado

Connecticut

UPDATED! Florida

UPDATED! Georgia

UPDATED! Hawaii

Illinois

UPDATED! Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

UPDATED! Maryland

Massachusetts

UPDATED! Michigan

Mississippi

UPDATED! Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

UPDATED! New Jersey

UPDATED! New York

UPDATED! North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

UPDATED! Oregon

Pennsylvania

UPDATED! Rhode Island

UPDATED! South Carolina

Vermont

UPDATED! Virginia

UPDATED! Washington

Washington DC

Wisconsin

Planning a Reunification Event

Tools for Planning Your Reunification Celebration

For more tools and information about contact with local media, contact Beverly Schulterbrandt, [email protected]

Planning a Successful Family Reunification Event

Sample Reunification Month Court Event

Sample Event Flyer

Sample Reunification Event Agenda

Sample Planning Timeline

Sample Reunification Month Proclamation

Sample Certificate of Reunification

Sample Communication Plan and Communication Timeline

Sample Event Ad

Tips for Media Outreach

Sample Reunification Month Key Messages

Sample Media Advisory

Guideline for Identifying Speakers

Guideline for Creating Speaker Biographies

Legal Services NJ Family Unification Day Videos

State Reunification Proclamations

Arizona

Colorado

Georgia

Hawaii

North Carolina

Oregon

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Webinars, Videos & Podcasts

Supporting Families through Reunification and Beyond

Presenters explore four key areas that support successful and lasting reunification: Family Team Meetings (Building a Team), Conditions for Return, Discharge Planning/Post-Reunification Supports, and Case Worker/Family Relationships.

Discussing Reunification with Chauncey Strong

In this Maryland Resource Parent Association video, Chauncey Strong highlights the importance of reunification and his work in this area.

Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast: Reunification

This episode focuses on the current reality of reunification across our public child welfare system. Listeners will hear a conversation among child welfare professionals, members of the American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Lawexternal link(opens in new window), the Children’s Bureau, and an alumnus of foster care.

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.

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.

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.

Building Parent Leadership and Power to Support Faster, Lasting Reunification and Prevent System Involvement

The webinar, hosted by Rise, a New York City advocacy organization, introduces the Rise CORE Program, which equips parent advocates to help parents navigate the system and give them with skills, tools, and resources to reunify quickly and avoid re-entering the system.

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.

Building Partnerships Between Parents and Caregivers: A Community-Based Multidisciplinary Approach to Strengthening Families

In this webinar, Birth Parent National Network leaders and lawyers who work as part of interdisciplinary legal representation teams shared: new Birth and Foster Parent Partnership Tools, the importance of parents and caregivers working together to achieve positive outcomes for children, and how the legal team can support the relationships between parents and caregivers.

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.