Reaching Out thru International Adoption changed its name into ChildPromise, Inc
Reaching Out thru International Adoption changed its name into ChildPromise, Inc on 30 August 2007.
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EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION A.M. WEDNESDAY, 03/29//06--
Reaching Out thru International Adoption, a licensed nonprofit, international adoption agency in Cherry Hill, NJ, announces the appointment of Sonia Baxter to the position of Executive Director. Baxter, who has been involved in the placement over 400 children from Eastern Europe in the past decade, came to Reaching Out in 2001 as the agency’s Eastern European Program Coordinator, and more recently as Director of Program Development. She comes to this area from Pittsburgh, PA where she has lived and worked for many years as founder and director of her own company, AdoptionCoordinations. She is a former resident of Westfield and graduated from Kent Place School in Summit.
Baxter replaces Debbie Spivack, J.D., who has opened her own full-time private practice of family law in Philadelphia. A knowledgeable and respected resource in the legal and adoption advocacy community, Spivack will continue to consult for Reaching Out on legislative issues and projects that serve the best interests of children worldwide. During her term at Reaching Our, Spivack was Chairperson of the Azerbaijan Caucus and the Co-Chairperson of the ICARE Government Affairs Committee for Joint Council on International Adoption (JCICS), the prestigious international advocacy group, based in Alexandria, Virginia. Spivack and RO Agency Founder, Jeannene Smith, have also been active members of the JCICS Hague Regulation Committee and the Hague Committee of Advisory Council on Intercountry Adoption, a collaboration of national organizations recognized as leaders in the ethical and professional practice of adoption and child welfare services.
In addition to adoption services, Reaching Out is strongly committed to providing humanitarian aid in many countries to benefit those children for whom adoption is not an option. Recent projects include the building of orphanages and schools; providing monthly nutrition and medical assistance; as well as shoes, clothing, school supplies and computers. With active adoption programs in Guatemala, Nepal, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Taiwan, Reaching Out is working currently with leaders in several African countries where the need for aid and the permanency for millions of children orphaned by famine and AIDS is critical.
What Is Reaching Out’s Message?
“That’s simple,” says Agency Founder Jeannene Smith. “International adoption is the single best opportunity for children who do not otherwise have permanent families to help them grow up to be happy, thriving, productive members of society and to achieve their personal potential as human beings.” Medical experts widely agree that institutionalization is harmful to children’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. Even the most lavishly funded orphanages fail to offer the opportunities for nourishment and development that a permanent family offers. Statistics from countries like Russia are plentiful, and demonstrate that children who grew up in institutions had increased rates of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and criminal activity. No alternative plan, including foster care, offers the same grim picture for children.
Reaching Out thru International Adoption was the dream of Founder Jeannene Smith after she and husband Don adopted a daughter from China ten years ago and a second from Guatemala. Today, Smith, Spivack and Baxter are actively involved in advocacy efforts promoting ethical adoption practice and writing national legislation that supports and serves the interests of children and permanency planning. Smith has been Chairperson of the JCICS Cambodia Caucus, Chairperson of JCICS Member Services and has served on the Ethics/Standards of practice committee. All have held leadership roles in the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) based in Alexandria, Virginia. JCICS is the oldest and largest affiliation of licensed, non-profit international adoption organizations worldwide.
Smith’s passion for child advocacy also led her to Focus on Adoption where she serves as Treasurer for that Board of Directors. FOA is an intercountry adoption advocacy organization that believes that all children deserve the opportunity to grow and develop within a loving and nurturing family; and when a child cannot remain with its birth family, intercountry adoption is a better solution than institutional care or foster care. (www.focusonadoption.com/about.shtml).