About Midwest Adoption Center

Midwest Adoption Center, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, was founded in 1992 to provide a wide range of services to children, adults and families touched by foster care, adoption and Assisted Reproduction (ART). Co-directors Nancy Golden and Gretchen Schulert have worked with adoptive families and adopted individuals in a variety of settings, saw unmet needs in the adoption community and recognized that adoption is changing. Individuals and families touched by adoption are thinking about their relationships in many new ways. These new options present unique challenges for each member of the adoption triad. The programs of the Center have been developed to help individuals and families meet these new challenges.

Some programs of Midwest Adoption Center include:

CLINCAL SERVICES: Adopted children and their families sometimes need special help to understand and resolve problems. It's not that adoption is in itself "a problem" ; but it does add another dimension which needs to be addressed by the counselor or therapist. There have been in the past, and still are, few counselors or therapists who are not only excellent clinicians but also understand the impact of adoption. MAC offers individual, marital and family counseling, individual and group therapy for children and adolescents as well as birthparent counseling. Most of these clinical services are covered by insurance.

FAMILY CONSULATIONS REGARDING MANY ADOPTION AND ASSISTED REPRODUCTION (ART) RELATED SITUATIONS: Forming a family by adoption or ART can be a daunting task. MAC can help families understand the issues and make good decisions for themselves along the way. Later, the task will be to understand the child's behavior, sorting out what might be related to adoption or ART questions and what is developmentally typical. Or the family may have little information about the child's birth or donor family. As his questions become more complex, parents may want to consider establishing contact with the birth or donor family to obtain more information. MAC can help adoptive parents think through the implications of their decisions - for themselves and for the child.

SEARCH AND REUNION SERVICE: Some adopted people feel a strong need for more information about their family of origin - and eventually decide to search for them. Even considering a search is emotional dynamite and the search itself is a roller coaster of feelings, fears and hopes. MAC can help an adoptee, and his family, explore and understand the need to search. Services are available to adoptees, their families and friends before, during and after a search.

Midwest Adoption Center provides search and reunion service through two programs delivered under contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The Illinois Adoption Act now allows persons adopted in Illinois to petition the Court for the appointment of a Confidential Intermediary. The Intermediary, by order of the Court, has access to all the sealed records pertaining to the adoption and attempts to locate and establish contact with the birth family of the adoptee. MAC coordinates this program throughout the state of Illinois.

In addition, adoptees and birth family members whose adoption was handled by DCFS can request search and reunion service. MAC delivers this service for the Department throughout the state of Illinois. There is no fee for search service through the DCFS program.

The Post-adoption program of the Crittenton Centers in Peoria, Illinois is delivered by MAC. This program offers information from files as well as search and reunion service to birth parents and adult adopted persons.

Determining which adoption search resource is best and how to access adoption files can be confusing. MAC provides Information and Referral service to all parties to an adoption who are seeking information about that adoption or who hope to locate an individual relative.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS: The Center has developed and presented many seminars and workshops to the adoption community in the Chicago area and across the country. These range from specialized presentations to small groups of adoptive parents, workshops for local and national annual adoption conferences to comprehensive training packages for agency professionals. The content, format and supporting materials for each presentation are designed by the Center to meet the special requirements of that audience.

SERVICES TO PROFESSIONALS: In addition to seminars and workshops, The Center staff can provide consultation and other assistance regarding program design and delivery as well as on-going staff support and training. Agencies and other professionals may contract with MAC to "out source" all or a portion of a direct service program.

MIDWEST ADOPTION CENTER STAFF

Nancy Golden, Clinical Director at the Midwest Adoption Center, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked in adoption and foster care services in an agency setting and in private practice. Before the formation of MAC, she was the Unit Director of the foster care, adoption and maternity program of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. The focus of Nancy's clinical work has been in promoting healthy growth and development for children and their birth, foster and adoptive families. In addition, she presents workshops and seminars at local as well as national conferences.

Gretchen Schulert, B.A. has more than 25 years professional experience in the adoption community. She has helped hundred of families expand their vision of adoption and pioneered open adoption service in the Chicago area. She now coordinates MAC's search related services and has had primary responsibility for the design and development of search related training and manuals. In addition, she presents workshops and seminars on a variety of adoption related topics.

Ann F. Lewis, M.S. began her career working for the Department of Public Welfare in Cambridge, MA. She has been an adoption educator and counselor in Illinois for 13 years. At Midwest Adoption Center, Ann coordinates the search services of CISI, as well as those contracted by private agencies. She counsels all member of the adoption circle, adoptees considering search/reunion, pre-adoptive couples considering adoption and couples who have used or are considering ART (assisted reproductive techniques) and confronting the issues these family building techniques bring.