Amara Programs
Foster-Adoption
Amara finds loving adoptive homes for children in foster care and for infants who have been relinquished to Amara's care. We educate, guide, and support adoptive parents so that they may sustain healthy and well-bonded families, capable of meeting the needs of vulnerable children. In recent years we have sharpened our focus to address the reality that many children wait too long to be adopted, and are at a high risk of aging out of foster care at 18 without a lifelong family. We work diligently to find families for these “harder to place” children, including children of color, children age 6 and older, and groups of siblings.
Temporary Foster Care
Oftentimes, children in foster care need a safe, temporary home until they can return to their birth parents or until they are found an adoptive home. Amara partners with foster parents who can provide the compassion that these children need during a particularly vulnerable time in their lives.
Pregnancy and Parenting Counseling
Amara also offers free, non-judgmental pregnancy counseling to women facing an unplanned pregnancy. Amara's caring and experienced counselors help women explore all their options and connect them with helpful community resources. We work with a client’s partner and her extended family whenever possible. Our counselors offer emotional support, accurate information, referrals and encouragement toward stability and healing, no matter what path our clients decide to take.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
For brothers David and Mark, life was a series of hardships. They lived in extreme poverty with their birth parents. The small trailer they called home left little room to escape witnessing things no child should, and by the time they were six and ten, their mother had died from cancer and their father had been sent to jail. They were placed in foster care, and although they shared a tight sibling bond, they were separated into different homes. They waited for three years in foster care to be adopted, always hoping for a family that would allow them to grow up together. Earlier this year, Roger—an Amara adoptive parent, welcomed David and Mark into his home. Although Roger’s original intent was to adopt one child, this vision was soon expanded when he learned through Amara’s family preparation process the profound need for adoptive homes for siblings and older children. While their path to becoming a family has not been without its bumps, Amara has helped Roger learn to transform his anxieties and frustrations into compassion for his two boys. Roger has provided David and Mark with a firm sense of security and belonging; their adoption was finalized six months after they were placed.
Successful outcomes, such as these, are made possible because of the dedication, professionalism, and expertise of our agency. Philanthropic support sustains our efforts on behalf of the vulnerable children in foster care, and remains Amara’s most urgent need.