FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOV. 8, 2011
   
 
Andrea Slivka
Public Relations Coordinator
Catholic Charities, Diocese of Toledo
419-308-2272
aslivka@toledodiocese.org
www.catholiccharitiesnwo.org
 
Additional contact:
Joy Shakur
Family Connections Program coordinator
419-244-6711, ext. 448
 
 
TOLEDO CATHOLIC CHARITIES CELEBRATES NOVEMBER AS NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH 
 
PRAYER BREAKFAST TO BE HELD NOV. 11
 
 Toledo Catholic Charities is hosting a celebration of families who have adopted domestically and internationally through its Family Connections Program. A prayer breakfast will be held 7:30 a.m. Nov. 11 at Toledo Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in honor of National Adoption Month. 

 
 Catholic Charities has facilitated domestic adoptions since 1914 and international adoptions since 1990. The organization conducts home studies for international adoptions and works with foreign adoption agencies and orphanages. Children are most commonly adopted from Haiti, Ethiopia and China because of the need and shorter waiting periods. 

This year, Catholic Charities is teaming up with area high schools to invite foreign exchange students to work with families who are adopting internationally. Beginning in January, students will help adoptive parents understand their child’s culture and serve as translators.

Catholic Charities is also a licensed agency for domestic adoptions for infants age six months and younger. Birth parents choose the adoptive couple from profiles in the organization’s Family Life Book, a collection of scrapbook-style profiles made by adoptive parents. Catholic Charities encourages open domestic adoptions in which a relationship can be established between the birth parents and adoptive parents.

“What Catholic Charities focuses on is serving the adoption triad as a whole,” said Joy Shakur, Family Connections Program coordinator. “The adoption triad is the adoptee or the adopted child, the birth mother and the adoptive parents. Working with all three pieces of the adoption triad, it is hoped that a relationship and a bond and attachment is started with all three and willhelp with the adjustment throughout the adoption process.”

In 2010, Catholic Charities served 31,000 people by providing food, shelter, prescription and emergency rent assistance aswell as adoption services, jail and prison ministries and services to the elderly.  The organization’s mission is to make real the love that God has for each individual person regardless of their faith or background by serving the poor, speaking for and assisting the neglected and forgotten, respecting and promoting life from beginning to end and nurturing and supporting individuals and families.
 
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