About Us
Creating a Family is the national adoption & foster care education and support nonprofit. Our mission is to strengthen foster, adoptive, and kinship families and the professionals who support them by creating expert-based, trauma-informed resources, community support, and training. Our vision is that every child has a family who understands their unique strengths and challenges and is equipped to help them thrive.
At Creating a Family, we strive to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities. We believe all children deserve a loving family, regardless of their race, ethnicity, age, nation of origin, religion, gender identity and expression, ability, or sexual orientation. We believe the same for families. We are proud to be part of the effort working towards a future where we will accept, celebrate, and love each child and their family as they are. Creating a Family does not discriminate against age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin.
For new programs, Creating a Family follows a 6-step process that includes these steps: listen, create, pilot, evaluate, improve, and distribute. View an example of this process for the Prenatal Substance Exposure Training for Parents that we developed and piloted in 2022-2023.
Check out our Media Resources here.
History and Mission of Creating a Family
Creating a Family started in 2007 as a labor of love. As parents raising children with early life trauma and special needs, we saw the huge need for education and support to help us be the best parents possible to our kids. Foster, kinship, and adoptive parents need information because our children often struggle with emotional and educational challenges that make parenting hard. However, this information must be expert-based and trauma-informed rather than the anecdotal sharing that often takes place. The mission of Creating a Family is to do just that– to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them by creating engaging, expert-based, and trauma-informed resources and training.
We create resources for families raising kids who have experienced the trauma of neglect, abuse, and prenatal exposure. Our resources embrace all the current media in order to fit the learning style and time availability of busy parents. In addition to education, we know first-hand the power of support and being surrounded by others who understand your experience. As such, we run a large online support group for adoptive, foster, and kinship families.
Financials
Our Leadership
Dawn Davenport is Executive Director and the “Official Voice” of Creating a Family since she has been hosting our weekly podcast since 2007 and is a frequent speaker at conferences. (We try to not let that title go to her head.) We also are proudly led by a terrific Board. You can check out their bona fides if you’re so inclined.
Our Staff
We have some of the best, brightest, and most dedicated folks helping us provide unbiased information and support. Check out their pretty/handsome faces and a bit about them.
Our Partners
Creating a Family would not be able to continue our work without the support of our dedicated partners.
Join Us
Creating a Family, the national adoption and foster care support and education nonprofit, was founded out of the need for a clear voice in this field. We exist to provide unbiased, accurate information. We are passionate researchers, networkers, and educators who spend each day finding and creating new resources to support families. Our educational content is not motivated by a sales agenda, so our community knows they can trust us as they consider some of the biggest decisions a family can make.
If this mission speaks to you, join us.
Bit of Bragging
Of course we’re proud of what we do, but what matters most is what our audience has to say. Here’s a sampling:
- I wanted to thank you for all of the wonderful things you do. We brought our beautiful baby boy home from the hospital on April 2nd. While we waited for an adoption match and then waited for his birth, your podcast and website were a continuous reminder that we were part of an amazing adoption community. It really helped us not feel alone. ~Sarah S.
- I just felt like I should say Thank You this morning! Your website and e-mails have consistently been a “touch stone” for me through this whole process – sometimes reaffirming what I already believe, sometimes giving me a different perspective, but always being something that I can respect and learn from. Thank you for this!!! ~ L. Adams
- Creating a Family has made a big difference to the quality of information that we can share with our adoptive community. We sometimes use your podcasts as the basis for roundtable discussions or our monthly Parent Support Meetings. ~ Louise Garnaut (Adoptive Families of Hong Kong)
Photos on Our Site
Have you noticed the wonderful pictures throughout our site? Some are from our online support community and some not. Some photographers have asked for attribution, and some have requested anonymity. Whenever possible, we give attribution at the bottom of the page on which the picture appears. This is not always possible, so we’ve included the rest on a separate Photo Attribution Page.