New York, NY, June 28, 2019 — Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children, a premier and globally recognized non-profit adoption and family services organization, is proud to announce that it has been recognized as an Innovator in LGBTQ inclusion in Celebrating Everyday Change-Makers in Child Welfare — a first-of-its-kind report highlighting more than 70 child welfare agencies across the country that partnered with the HRC Foundation’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) project to improve the services they provide to the LGBTQ community, including children in foster care and prospective foster and adoptive parents. These organizations serve more than 350,000 clients annually in 23 states and employ nearly 11,000 people.

Yekaterina (Kate) Trambitskaya, Chief Executive Officer of Spence-Chapin said, “We are honored to be recognized as an Innovator in LGBTQ Inclusion by HRC Foundation. For years, Spence-Chapin has been a leader in creating pathways to adoption for LGBTQ families and providing them with LGBTQ-affirming support and care. It is our hope that more organizations will join us in celebrating and supporting LGBTQ children and families.”

“Thousands of committed professionals — from frontline workers to executives — know that LGBTQ youth are perfect just the way they are and that removing barriers for potentially qualified LGBTQ foster and adoptive parents is in the best interest of children,” said Alison Delpercio, Director of the HRC Foundation’s All Children – All Families Project. “While some of these agencies are taking their first steps toward inclusion and others have been leaders in innovating new approaches, more agencies should look to the policies and practices these organizations are implementing to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination and meaningfully engage their communities.”

The agencies featured in this report conducted an internal self-assessment, provided professional development to staff and implemented ACAF’s “Benchmarks of LGBTQ Inclusion,” which track policy and practice changes within agencies. Celebrating Everyday Change- Makers features three “Tiers of Recognition,” which celebrate the strides agencies have made toward becoming fully LGBTQ welcoming and affirming.

Since 2007, hundreds of child welfare agencies across the U.S. have used ACAF’s resources to enhance their efforts to achieve safety, permanency and well-being for LGBTQ youth and families. This new effort marks a major step toward improving the services provided to LGBTQ youth and prospective parents.

As a recipient of the Human Rights Campaign’s “All Children – All Families” Innovator Seal of Recognition, Spence-Chapin is committed to equality in adoption and is proud of the many children we have placed in loving, stable, same-sex households. Spence-Chapin provides birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees a supportive community and a connection to professionals who understand the unique aspects of adoption.

We offer culturally sensitive, LGBTQ-affirming care in an accepting, nonjudgmental environment. Services include pre-adoption consultations, counseling, support groups, referrals, programs for LGBTQ kids and teens, LGBTQ parent workshops and trainings for LGBTQ professionals. For more information on these services and adoption pathways for LGBTQ individuals, please visit spence-chapin.org/lgbtq-adoption.

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The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

Spence-Chapin Services to Families sand Children has been offering exceptional adoption and family services for more than 100 years. Its mission is to help find loving families for children whatever their needs or circumstances and provide counseling and lifelong support for all children and families to whom they have been born or entrusted. Spence-Chapin’s roots date back to the early 1900s with the pioneering work of Ms. Clara Spence and Dr. and Mrs. Henry Chapin, who established nurseries for infants abandoned on the streets of New York City, led humanitarian efforts, and created families through adoption. Spence-Chapin has since expanded to include other comprehensive support programs. The organization’s award-winning efforts have served more than 25,000 women, children, and families through domestic, international and special needs adoption, post-adoption support, and humanitarian aid programs such as the Granny Program. Find out more at spence-chapin.org.