Gladney Support Center in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, provides adoption and advocacy services. Following its origins in the 1880s, when focusing on home placement for orphans during the period of mass migration. It evolved into lobbying, international adoption, counseling, maternity services, education and philanthropy.
Video Gladney Center for Adoption
History
Initial history
The history of the center can be traced back to 1887. Fort Worth was founded in 1849 and became the home center, at the close of the Mexican-American War. In 1886, the Texas and Pacific Railways operated and at least four storage areas were located near the railway line. The train brought migrants from the southeast and, in 1887, the first "Orphan Train" from the northeast. The Orphan Train movement transported about 200,000 children from the northeast across the Midwest and as far west as Texas.
Pastor IZT Morris (born Spalding Co, Georgia, March 21, 1847), a Methodist minister, began looking for homes for children who had reached the end of the line in Fort Worth. He and his wife Isabella took many children while trying to identify a permanent home for them among the locals and slowly started the Texas Children's Society at Home. It was officially leased in 1896 and entered in 1904 as Texas Children's Home and Community Assistance.
In 1906, a house was purchased by the Board of Directors on Avenue H in the city of Fort Worth. The goal is to nurture children until they can be placed with a permanent family. Reverend Morris was the State Inspector, fundraiser and Chairman of the Board of Directors until his death in 1914. Reverend Morris was responsible for finding homes for about 1000 children. Isabella ("Belle") succeeded him and oversaw the Society until 1924.
Edna Gladney Edna Browning Kahly, January 22, 1886) joined the Texas Home Affairs and Community Assistance Board in 1910. In 1927, he was appointed Inspector. She expanded the scope of services to include the needs of unmarried mothers and provide adoption services for their babies. In 1949 he convinced the Board of Directors to buy a small hospital, West Texas Maternity Home, so that these women could receive medical treatment during their pregnancy and have a private place to give birth to their baby. Children's Homes and Children's Aid Institutions Texas also operates Baby Houses where babies are treated until they are adopted.
Gladney has served as Inspector for 33 years. In recognition of its continuing contribution, in 1950 the Board of Directors changed the name of The Edna Gladney Home agency. He continued as Director until 1959 when his health failed forced him into semi-retirement. He died in Fort Worth in 1961.
1960-1985
Ruby Lee Piester takes over Gladney's post. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Gladney's delivery service programs expanded. In 1970, the Gladney campus in Fort Worth included high school and high school on campus operated by the Fort Worth Independent School District, with dormitories, hospital facilities and career development programs and an apartment life center for older women. Services are intended to meet the physical and emotional needs of the population with an emphasis on providing a non-judgmental environment in which these women are encouraged to think positively about their future and their children.
During this period, the Home housing facility can accommodate up to 150 women, including chapels, swimming pools, mini golf courses and provide both traditional school environments for junior and senior high school students and GED preparation and testing programs. Career development and counseling services are available. This program is licensed by Texas Health and Human Services. All programs are offered free of charge to young women who are planning adoption.
Ruby Lee Piester joined Home in 1960 as Director of Social Services and became Executive Director from 1963 to 1983. During that time he oversaw the placement of 7,800 babies. She and her husband have no children. Piester died in 2003.
In the 1970s, the service expanded again to include women living in communities other than citizens. Believed to be the first of its kind in the country, Gladney offered a free crisis pregnancy phone hotline in 1976. During his tenure, Piester pioneered an adoption program that identifies adoptive parents for children born with special medical needs.
For the Hundred Years Celebration at Home in 1987, First Lady Barbara Bush, a Gladney "grandmother", celebrated the event with the agency as a special guest.
1990-present
Michael J. McMahon was appointed President in 1988, the first adoptive parent to hold the post. In 1991, the Board of Directors officially changed the name of the agency to the Gladney Center for Adoption to reflect its expanded services.
During McMahon's tenure, the Center launched three new adoption programs: the New Beginning, which puts children from Texas foster with permanent families; ABC program, Gladney baby adoption program centered on meeting the needs of African American and biracial children; and its international adoption program in 1992. The first international "Gladney Baby" came home in March 1994 from Shanghai, China. Gladney celebrated its 1,000th international placement in 2002.
McMahon announced the sale of the Gladney campus at Hemphill St in Fort Worth to the Fort Worth Independent School District in June 1999. The first stone layout for the new campus took place in October 2000. The agent moved to its present location in southwestern Fort Worth in 2002. campuses include the Visitor Center and Adoption Museum, counseling center, dormitory, recreational facilities, educational space, career counseling and administrative offices. By the time of his retirement in 2008, McMahon had overseen the placement of 6,674 children from the US and around the world into permanent families.
Frank R. Garrott was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2007, taking over the day-to-day operations. Prior to becoming COO, Garrott was on the Gladney Fund Board of Directors from 1997 to 2006. In 2008 Garrott was appointed President and CEO.
Like its predecessor, Garrott is Gladney's adoptive parents. After a career in business and banking consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citibank and Bank One, he decided to focus on Gladney. She serves on the Christian Mission Council for the United Nations Community and recently joined the Board of Directors of the Joint Council on International Children's Services and the American Children's Home Society.
Gladney Center for Adoption 2012 - 2013 Board of Directors
Maps Gladney Center for Adoption
Advocacy
Starting with Pastor Morris's commitment to finding a home, not just a job, for children, Gladney has a history of advocacy. Edna Gladney leads two major initiatives that result in significant changes to adoption practices. In 1936, he convinced the Texas legislature to remove the word "unlawful" from the birth certificate. His effort to make Texas issued a second birth certificate with the name of adoptive parents.
In 1951, he convinced the legislature to give children the same heirs with biological children. He argued with great success that these children should be legally adopted rather than placed in long-term trust, as was the practice at the time. He became known within the Texas legislature as "the Gladney woman".
Piester also became famous for his advocacy. He is credited with launching the first Child Welfare Advisory Council for Regional Licensing, established in Fort Worth for the State Public Welfare Department. He represents the State of Texas on committees including the Texas Governor's Committee for Promoting Adoption, the Governor's Commission for Children and Youth, the State Advisory Committee on Child Care Facilities and the Texas Association of Maternity Care and Certified Adoption.
In 1980, Piester established the National Committee for Adoption (NCFA, now the National Council for Adoption) to focus on advocacy of adoption. Although opposed by supporters of adoption across the country, the State Draft Model Adoption Act was published in February 1980 which would allow the adoption record to be opened regardless of privacy promises or confidentiality. The first official NCFA campaign worked to revise the law to better serve all parties.
The Gladney Center supports the Texas Voluntary Registry, which allows adoption children and adult family births to make contact, or "match", when both parties register in the registry.
Awards and acknowledgments
After a MGM publicist and his wife adopted a child from the Texas Children's House and Relief Society, he presented Ny's life story. Gladney to the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Louis Mayer. The work of his life was the foundation for a 1941 movie, Blossoms in the Dust . Greer Garson plays Gladney and Walter Pidgeon plays her husband, Sam. Blossoms in the Dust was in the top ten films of 1941 and was nominated for four Academy Awards - Best Film, Best Actress, Color Cinematography, and Color Interior Decoration, won an Oscars for Interior Decorations of Color. Gladney is paid $ 5,000 for her story right, which she donates to the Society.
In 1953, he appeared on the television show This Is Your Life, where he was honored for a career that oversaw the permanent placement of more than 10,000 children. Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth, gave him a Doctor of Law degree in 1957.
The National Council for Adoption named the Washington DC headquarters after Piester (named Ruby Lee Piester Center) in 1995. Then Texas Governor George W. Bush asked him to serve on a special committee to improve Texas's nursery system, and he was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame.
In April 1991, Piester was inducted into the Adoption Hall of Fame by the National Committee for Adoption (now the NCFA) and honored for 35 years of dedication for the purpose of adoption.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas nominated McMahon for the Angels in Adoption award in 2008. The Congressional Coalition at the Adoption Institute (CCAI) honored it at an awards ceremony in Washington, DC, on September 16, 2008.
In 2007, the Gladney Assisting Center was one of the first US adoption agencies to be accredited by the Adoption Board as a "hostile to the Hague" body. The Hague Convention protects against unethical, unlawful and inhumane adoption practices among adoption providers by establishing a set of standards for the countries involved in international adoption.
The Gladney Center is scheduled to be introduced in 2012 into the NCFA Adofone Hall of Fame for celebrating 125 years of service to families, children and biological parents.
Fundraising
Pastor Morris is known as "the man with the basket". Reportedly, the local railway officer gave him a free train ticket. Gladney placed bottles of milk at local retail stores for donations.
The first Gladney aid was formed in 1952 in Houston. Dallas Auxiliary was founded in 1953 and together these organizations earned a $ 600,000 donation. The Fort Worth Auxiliary was formed in 1964 and held its first fundraiser, Blossoms in the Dust Luncheon, in 1965. The 47th Luncheon was held in 2011. Over time, Auxiliaries evolved to provide volunteers, fundraising and support for the Gladney adoptive family and later renamed the Gladney Family Associations. Today, there are 18 Gladney Family Associations across the US.
The Gladney Fund was established in 1992 to collect and manage funds. In 1999, a group of volunteers hosted a Gladney Cup charity charity event at Colonial Country Club, home of the World Cup. Since then, six events have been held at the US Open golf course across the US.
Services
Gladney provides adoption programs, delivery services, home study services, preparation and training for host families, counseling and support, adoption and advocacy education and humanitarian assistance.
adoption program
- Baby adoption provides permanent, home to newborns and toddlers of all races and backgrounds born in the United States.
- New Beginning provides a foster family for children currently available for adoption and waiting in the Texas state foster system, and for children born with special medical needs.
- International adoption brings together adoptive parents with children born in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, or Latin America.
Maternity service
- Hotline for pregnancy support for women with unplanned pregnancy
- Housing and community-based programs for women who are planning adoption
- Counseling and support
- Educational and career development opportunities
- Lifelong post-adoption support and counseling
Family training and support
- Home study service
- Pre-adoption training and preparation classes
- Special training and support for families that adopt older children or special needs
- Special training for families that adopt children from foster
- Lifelong post-adoption support and counseling
- Support parents to parents through Gladney Family Associations (GFA)
Education and advocacy of adoption
- Awareness of adoption and training for the community
- Awareness of adoption and training for students and health professionals and social workers
- Community partnerships with pregnancy resource centers and health care facilities
- Participation in advocacy organizations including the National Council for Adoption (NCFA), International Joint Services Council of Children, Accreditation Advisors, Texas Child and Family Alliances, Institutions of American Children's Homes, United States Adoption Lawyers Academy
Fundraising and philanthropy
- GEFA sponsored annual fundraiser
- Gladney Bi-annual Cup
- Philanthropic initiatives provide adoption education, and support children who will not be adopted in the US and other countries where Gladney works
- Humanitarian initiatives in four key areas: Quality of Life, Transition Program for Old Orphans, Travel of Volunteer Services, Emergency Assistance/Special Projects
References
External links
- http://adoptionsbygladney.com/
- http://ontheirown.org/
- http://pregnancyhotline.org/
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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