Skip to main content

First Two Weeks at Gladney

By
I have LOVED getting to work at Gladney! Heidi Bruegel Cox (whom I work with in Legal) is good about making this a two-way experience in which I learn from and about Gladney as much as I work for Gladney. I've had the chance to go with Heidi to a local hospital and listen to her present to the current resident class of OB-GYNs about the adoption services Gladney could offer their clients.

The best part of my experience thus far was attending Adoptive Parent Orientation. It was amazing! Couples came to learn about the next steps in the adoption process and have all their questions answered. It was wonderful to hear from three birth-moms about their journeys - they are all so sweet, bright and thoughtful.

My big project for the summer is researching the cost associated with state adoptions and with children leaving the foster care system. I have spent the first half of this week looking into the costs associated with future homelessness of youth who age out of foster care - it is astounding!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. GladneyMay 26, 2010 at 1:46 PM

    Welcome to Gladney, Lauren! Can't wait to read more!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's not Business, It's Personal

By
Well, it is the beginning of my second full week here at Gladney as an intern, and it has been wonderful! I think that my favorite part about being here, besides the free cake that randomly shows up in the break room, is the people that are here. I have felt continually supported by each person I come in contact with. Each time I ask a question, or look lost, I am anwered with a smiling face and a helpful attitude! So, thank you Gladney staff! :) As I am typing this, I am overhearing a conversation with a caseworker and one of their clients, and the caseworker is getting to tell the family that they will be able to travel to visit a child in the next month! On the phone the mother started crying at the thought of, possibly , seeing their new baby in a month...and then I started crying as I recognized how special and personal this work is. What is done here touches lives, not only the families lives, but the staff's (and intern's) as well! That family will be changed from today ...
2 comments
Read more

Training at Gladney

By
Lately I have been working on getting together a training for the staff of Gladney and some of our partnering agencies (through the DFW Interagency Adoption Council). We have been working with The Parenting Center to set up the training for February 25. As we were looking through the list of trainings that The Parenting Center offered one stuck out to us, in particular. This was titled, "Helping Children Deal with Stress and Feelings," and we felt that this training would be beneficial for most of the social workers that would be in attendance. The training is all about recognizing and responding appropriately to the positive and negative feelings of the children of today and the stresses they face. In particular, learning this information would be helpful to pass along to the families and children they work with on a day to day basis. I was especially intrigued by this title because it is not one that is taught on very frequently, yet is crucial to parents understanding the...
1 comment
Read more

Social Media, Bookmarks

By
Today I kind of played catchup, but in the process I encountered some interesting projects that Gladney is working on. First, I signed Gladney up for Gowalla.com and Foursquare.com . If you do not know anything about these websites (as I was) they essentially are forums for you to visit locales in your city and give tips or reviews of them. It is really interesting and they are utilized mainly though mobile devices, a medium that is growing faster than the Internet did in the early 90s. So, if you love your iPhone apps, download the Gowalla and Foursquare apps and go visit the Visitor's Center and the Gladney Center for Adoption! Now moving in a different direction, I also began working on a project to turn artwork made for Gladney's book covers into bookmarks. These bookmarks would be left at various outreach events at schools, etc. The current artwork is a really unique piece of grafitti that was made especially with Gladney in mind. It is made up of words that embody Gl...
Post a Comment
Read more