All young people deserve a strong support network that meets their needs; embraces and affirms their identity; promotes family, community, and cultural connections; and improves their well-being. During National Adoption Month in November, we continue our focus on pursuing adoption or another permanency outcome—such as reunification, kinship care, or guardianship—for every teen in foster care. National Adoption Month seeks to increase awareness of adoption, bring attention to the need for adoptive families for teens experiencing the U.S. foster care system, and emphasize the value of lifelong connections.  

This year's National Adoption Month theme is “Honoring Youth: Strengthening Pathways for Lasting Bonds.” Child welfare professionals and others work with youth to identify, maintain, and nurture supportive connections as soon as they become involved with the child welfare system and continue to build these bonds over time. This includes helping youth maintain relationships with family and friends; developing new connections with peers, mentors, caseworkers, and others; and building trusting bonds with prospective and current adoptive family members.  

The National Adoption Month 2024 website highlights strategies professionals can use to help youth build lasting, lifelong connections and to support them along their adoption journey. The resources include emphasizing relational permanency, supporting kin caregivers to positively impact stability and permanency outcomes, and developing and sustaining comprehensive, culturally responsive, and accessible postpermanency services. 

Young people may benefit from hearing about why supportive relationships are essential. Professionals can help by laying the foundation of what support can look like and helping young people understand that they do not have to go forward alone. Child welfare professionals can help young people feel heard and understood by talking to them about their interests, asking questions, helping them work through challenges, listening attentively, and authentically engaging them, especially concerning permanency decisions. By listening to youth voices, professionals can build a relationship based on mutual trust. These conversations are especially important for teens exploring permanency. 

As adoption professionals, we must also embrace each young person’s racial and cultural identity to promote their holistic identity during permanency planning. Black or African American, multiracial, and American Indian/Alaska Native children are overrepresented among all children in foster care compared with the general child population. To address disparities and advance equity, child welfare professionals should connect youth with adoptive families that embrace and honor their racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. By honoring every youth and their network, professionals can work toward permanency outcomes that are safe, stable, timely, family centered, nurturing, and equitable.  

The National Adoption Month 2024 website features resources to support your work with young people and to help youth maintain existing relationships, develop new connections, and build trusting bonds. The Youth and Family Voices page features stories and videos highlighting the importance of adoption and connectedness for teens. Share these stories as you discuss permanency planning with youth.