Resources for foster/adoptive parents. 

Kids that have gone through the process of foster care and/or adoption all experience a level of trauma. This will affect the way they process information, correction, food and safety. It is vital as a foster/adoptive parent to research how trauma affects brain development and the best resources to help them thrive. Many of these books will also be helpful for teachers, family members, friends or anyone that regularly works with kids with challenging circumstances. Here are some suggested resources. ​

Reading Resources: Childhood Trauma and Parenting

• Parenting the Hurt Child: Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow by Gregory Keck and Regina Kupecky
• ​Wounded Children, Healing Homes by Schooler, Smalley & Callahan
• Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience After Neglect and Trauma by Deborah D. Gray
• The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
• ​The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
• The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family by Karyn B. Purvis
• ​Beyond Consequences, Logic & Control by Heather Forbes
• Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents by Deborah D. Gray​
• The Mindful Child by Susan Greenland
• The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Affects of Childhood
• Reaching and Teaching Children Exposed to Trauma
• Telling the Truth to your Adopted or Foster Child

​Articles Written by Adoptees
Their voice is the most important, don't miss these words.
​Becoming Omma: A Korean Adoptee Becomes A Biological Mother (written by a Foster Love Project staff member)
​10 Things Adopted Kids Would Say If They Knew What They Were Thinking About
Becoming Adoptee Lilly
​Dear Adoption, I Don't Want To Be Spoken For, I Want To Be Listened To
Dear Adoption, Dear NAAM

Listen
These podcasts are vital listening for important topics covered by adoptees.
Adoptees On
The Adoptee Next Door

Facebook groups
These groups largely center around the voices of adoptees and first moms. They are going to be different from your typical adoption groups, but these groups cover very necessary topics in the most honest way.
​Adoption: Facing Realities
Building Connections in Open Adoption
​Transracial Adoption Perspectives

Help through therapy / counseling - from expert Adoptee therapists
Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker
https://www.growbeyondwords.com/

Cam Lee Small 
https://therapyredeemed.wordpress.com/

Adoptee Therapist Directory 
https://www.growbeyondwords.com/adoptee-therapist-directory/

Angela Tucker 
https://www.angelatucker.com/mentorship - mentoring for teens

FLP Teen Connections Program
Local Pittsburgh teen mentoring group for teens who have experienced foster care or adoption. 

​Click here for resources for black adoptees
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Click here for resources for Latino adoptees
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About Foster Care and Adoption

• ​Another Place at the Table
• ​In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption
• ​The Adopted Life - real talk with adult adoptee, Angela Tucker
• Growing Up in the Care of Strangers: The Experiences, Insights and Recommendations of Eleven Former Foster Kids
• ​To Seek, But Not Find and Never Give Up by Emily Thornton
• PACT resources - for transracial adoptive families

Books for kids about Foster Care and Adoption

• Maybe Days: A book for children in foster care
• Kids Need To Be Safe: A book for children in foster care
• Families Change: A book for children experiencing termination of parental rights
• A Mother for Choco: a book about adoption
• We Adopted You, Benjamin Koo: a book about Korean adoption
• Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born
• Families Are Different
• And That's Why She's My Mama
• Adoption is a Lifelong Journey​