Mission Statement
Crossroads strives to link waiting families with children and works to find homes for children in need of forever families. Crossroads has no specific requirements such as religion, marital status, length of marriage, number of children, age, or physical status. Crossroads employs a client-centered approach to adoption, based on the concept that adoption should be a growth-oriented, healthy, fun, and creative process.
Description
Crossroads Adoption Services (Crossroads) is a private, non-profit adoption agency created in April 1976. We are Hague-accredited per Hague Convention requirements and the Council of Accreditation and licensed by the states ofMinnesotaandWisconsin. The main source of funding for the agency is based on client fees for services and contributions from donors. The board of directors and staff work hard to keep fees affordable for families and Crossroads' budget appropriate to be as efficient and effective as possible.
Crossroads strives to link waiting families with children and works to find homes for children in need of forever families. We provide home study services to families inMinnesotaandWisconsinand work with families from any state (who complete a Hague accredited home study through a local agency). Crossroads works in both domestic and international adoption, with our largest international programs being withColombia,China, and thePhilippines. Crossroads Adoption Services is directly accredited and/or recognized by the governments of China,Colombia, India,Nepal, Philippines, UkraineandVietnam.
The above countries have agreed that we can work with any of the child agencies in their country without using anotherU.S.agency. Countries which have an accreditation process usually have a central government authority which approves each child to be placed and the agency with whom the child is placed. In this case, Crossroads would be an agency which is recognized as a valid agency with whom to work. Crossroads can, as can other accredited agencies, sponsor families from other agencies in theUSand sometimes the world, thereby allowing those families to be a resource for children. One of the reasons countries are accrediting agencies with whom they work is to assure themselves that the children will have an immediate and future resource for assistance. Most governments require post-placement reports and the accredited agency is responsible for this in order to maintain their accredited status. Also, governments realize that not all placements go smoothly and they want to be assured that the children they have placed are supervised according to their wishes.
Since our inception 35 years ago, Crossroads has placed more than 4,000 children. Approximately 25% areU.S.children and the rest are from other countries. Crossroads has placed children from more than 36 different countries. Nearly 20% of all the children placed were identified as being older, part of a sibling group, or having special needs. Approximately 15% of all our clients have been single.
Crossroads employs a client-centered approach to adoption, based on the concept that adoption should be a growth-oriented, healthy, fun, and creative process. It assumes a solid marriage and/or good personal adjustment, a readiness to parent, and adequate resources and love to meet the needs of a specific child or children. The primary objective of the Adoption Counselor is to help clients develop an adoption plan which is a mutually agreed upon, realistic description of their personalities, resources and hopes in adoption. Crossroads has no specific requirements such as religion, marital status, length of marriage, number of children, age, or physical status. Adoption planning focuses on the future rather than the past. Our goal is planning with clients, rather than making decisions for them. The role of the Adoption Counselor is to support clients, raise appropriate questions for them to consider, share information and perceptions, to serve as custodian of data supplied by the client, and to complete the writing of the adoption plan-all in an atmosphere of openness and equality.
Crossroads works with families in completing an adoption plan, seeking and identifying a child, placement of the child, providing assistance and support in the adjustment process, and assisting with legal finalization of the adoption.
