Providing care and support for vulnerable children around the world.
Spence-Chapin is committed to the welfare of children and families. For more than 25 years, Spence-Chapin has been ensuring for the care and support of vulnerable children through our Granny and Special Needs Adoption Programs. In recent years, Spence-Chapin has added our Project Play initiative, Holiday Angels Program, and other humanitarian aid efforts during the pandemic and beyond to best support children and families around the world. Made possible by the generosity of our supporters, each program uniquely provides for the needs of children and families in challenging circumstances.
To learn more about these remarkable programs and how to support them, please contact us below. Thank you.
The Granny Program brings volunteer “Grannies” from the community into children’s orphanages to devote time and attention to the same children each day. The initial relationship between a child and their primary caregiver is a strong predictor of a child’s emotional and physical health, and ability to develop strong attachments later in life. Due to limited resources, many orphanages around the world are understaffed and unable to provide children with one-on-one attention and care. Children may languish for hours in cribs without being held. This lack of connection and touch in even modest amounts has been shown to delay development, affect physical and cognitive growth, and cause attachment insecurity, which can impact an individual’s ability to regulate emotions and interact competently with others in society. By providing each child with a Granny who cares for them, children can reach their developmental milestones, experience love, and are able to thrive.
Since 1995, the Special Needs Adoption Program has placed more than 550 children with severe medical challenges in permanent, loving homes where they have the opportunity to thrive. Children born with needs that are too great for their birth parents to manage often times end up in foster care where positive outcomes are difficult to achieve. By providing a child with a permanent, loving home where their lifelong needs can be cared for from the start, and offering birth parents support and agency in the process, the Special Needs Adoption Program creates bright futures for the children and families it supports.
In 2019, Spence-Chapin launched Project Play to address the critical role of play in children’s lives. Due to a lack of vital resources, many orphanages around the world are not able to provide an area for children to engage in structured and unstructured play which is crucial in helping children reach developmental milestones.
Project Play builds outdoor playgrounds with state-of-the-art equipment and stations at children’s orphanages. It also supplies birthday and holiday gifts and celebrations for children who so often never receive recognition on these special days.
The support that Spence-Chapin offers to birth parents, adoptive families, and adoptees is lifelong. Through our Holiday Angels Program, we are able to offer support to families who received services from us in the past who may be struggling to provide gifts for their children during the holidays. The Holiday Angels who participate in this special program purchase gifts for the children of a family in need to provide extra joy during the holiday season. The program begins and November, so stay tuned for more information!
Spence-Chapin seeks to repsond to crises where children and families are at risk. Through these special humanitarian efforts, Spence-Chapin has been able to provide health and safety supplies to orphanages during the COVID-19 pandemic, assist children and families fleeing the crisis in Ukraine through food parcels and safe shelter, provide food for children in some of the poorest communities in South Africa during the most challenging times of the pandemic, and so much more. By contibuting to the Special Humanitarian Effort fund, you are making a commitment to children and families in crisis, ensuring that they are taken care of and provided for during the most challenging of times.
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