November 2007

ADELPHOIVILLAGE CELEBRATES NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH

Latrobe, PA -- Imagine a world in which you have no place to call home. No place to feel comfortable or safe. For over 500,000 children in the United States, this is an unfortunate reality.

With the rate of neglect and abuse rising each year, the need for safe homes for children is increasing. Since 1976, Adelphoi Village has been helping children find a home in which they feel safe and loved through their foster and adoption services.

Adelphoi Village is a licensed adoption agency and is affiliated with SWAN, the Statewide Adoption Network. Working with SWAN allows Adelphoi Village to register its foster and adoptive parents through the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange. Once registered, Adelphoi Village foster parents have the opportunity to seek information on adoptable children.

Private adoptions can be cost prohibitive, but adoptions through SWAN are essentially free. Adelphoi Village works with SWAN to offer needy children the opportunity to grow up in a permanent family environment.

In conjunction with National Adoption Month, Adelphoi Village is celebrating the adoption of one of its foster children. Foster parents Dick and Marie Frena have been with Adelphoi Village since 2003. Over the course of three years, the Frenas have adopted an older boy and fostered several others. On Friday, November 16, the Frenas completed their family by adopting another older child through Adelphoi Village. The Frenas’ willingness to accept older children in need of a safe, loving home makes them a critical component of Adelphoi Village’s foster and adopt program.

Adelphoi Village, a service of Adelphoi USA, provides care and treatment to over 800 youth and their families on a daily basis. Headquartered in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the program provides a continuum of services that also includes group homes, a charter school, multisystemic therapy, education services, supervised independent living, secure care, and mental health programs.

For more information on Adelphoi Village’s foster and adoptive services, please contact Nne-Nne Abanobi at nne-nnea@adelphoivillage.org.