WHO WE ARE

The Buffalo Urban League’s Foster Care and Adoption Programs is a community-based agency dedicated to improving the lives of children, birth parents, and families. We provide casework counseling, service coordination, and ongoing support tailored to each family’s needs.

The focus of the Buffalo Urban League Foster Care and Adoption Programs is to support families in crisis, helping them access the resources needed to address the issues that led to their children’s out-of-home placement. Our goal is to work with birth families to achieve reunification whenever possible. When reunification is not possible, we strive to identify loving families who can provide permanent homes through adoption.

Supporting children and families through safe, stable, and nurturing environments is at the heart of our work. Our programs are designed to ensure every child has the opportunity to grow, thrive, and feel a sense of belonging, whether through foster care, kinship care, or adoption.

We work closely with families and community partners to create pathways toward stability, reunification, and permanent placement.

FOSTER CARE

Provide a safe and supportive temporary home for children in need.

Foster care offers children stability during times of transition. Our program prepares and supports foster parents to care for children with compassion, patience, and consistency while working toward reunification with their birth parents.

Foster Parents Responsibilities:

• Provide A Safe and nurturing home environment
• Provide emotional support and stability
• Cooperate with case workers, service providers and birth families

You Can Become A Foster Parent If You:

• Are 21 years or older
• Rent or own your home
• Are single, married, or partnered
• Have a willingness to support a child in need

Supportive Services Include:

• Home certification
• Guidance through the caregiving process
• Counseling and supportive services
• National Training & Development Curriculum (NTDC), Parenting Education and other training
• Advocacy
• Crisis intervention
• Case management and goal planning

KINSHIP CARE

Keeping families connected.

Kinship care allows children to remain with relatives, Fictive Kinship caregivers (trusted adults who may be a family member, close friend or community members who share a relationship with a child), when they cannot safely remain with their parents. This approach helps preserve family bonds, cultural identity, and emotional stability.

We are committed to helping kinship families remain connected, strong, stable, and supported.

Support For Kinship Caregivers Includes:

• Guidance through the home certification and caregiving process
• Access to financial and community resources
• Counseling and supportive services
• NTDC, Parenting Education and other training
• Advocacy
• Crisis intervention
• Case management and goal planning

ADOPTION

Creating permanent, loving homes

Adoption provides children with permanency, stability and a Forever family. We guide prospective adoptive parents through each step of the process, ensuring they are prepared, supported, and informed.

Adoption Services Include:

• Home studies and family evaluations
• NTDC and other training
• Family matching and placement assistance
• Counseling and long-term family support
• Pre- and post-adoption support services

Adoptive Parents May be:

• Be single or married
• Own or rent your home
• Have or not have children
• A desire to make a difference in a child’s life
  

PROGRAM IMPACT

• Children safely supported in foster and kinship homes
• Families strengthened through reunification services
• Children placed into permanent adoptive homes when needed
• Resource families supported through training and counseling
• Long-term stability provided through ongoing services