National Kinship Review 25th Anniversary Edition

Volume 2, Issue 7
July 2019

View this email in your browser

National Kinship Review 25th Anniversary Edition

To commemorate our anniversary, ASCI staff dug through the agency's history to pick out significant milestones, special moments and meaningful initiatives.

Below, you will find our agency timeline and powerful lessons from ASCI founder and CEO Dr. Sharon McDaniel, as well as a story of kinship, service and permanency from the crucial perspective of an adoptive family helped through our Stepping Into Families program.

To see our (very) full timeline, please visit our website.

A Value for Family
25 Years in 25 Quotes

A Second Chance, Inc., founder, president and CEO Dr. Sharon McDaniel has documented her story time and again to show what a lifetime commitment to family and kinship care looks like. In her 2014 book, On My Way Home: A Memoir of Kinship, Grace, and Hope, she revealed the intimate details of a childhood spent in and out of kinship homes, separated from her immediate family, before aging out of a system that lacked kinship programming and the support of modern legislation. Her experiences led her to a career in social work, advocating to keep children with kin and eventually opening her own agency to provide the services to birth and kinship families she once needed but never received.

Since ASCI opened its doors 25 years ago, Dr. McDaniel has made permanency and well-being possible for thousands of children and families, based on the ancient tradition of family caring for family. Here, we attempt to sum up all these years in 25 heartfelt quotes from her personal memoir about family, kinship care and ASCI’s groundbreaking work.

To view all 25 quotes, please visit our website.

Kinship in Action

An adoptive family tells their story of how ASCI’s Stepping Into Families program helped them keep two siblings together and provide them love and permanency.

The McCleery family

Throughout its 25 years of programming, A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI) has always paid special attention to the needs of older youth, many lingering in congregate care settings. In 2012, ASCI established their Stepping Into Families (SIF) program to formalize a process where kinship care caseworkers “step up” their commitment to making sure older youth in care achieve permanency with family, knowing that family is critical in preparing youth for adulthood and setting the path toward future success. What makes SIF unique is a more intense concentration on adolescent needs, recognizing the kinship dynamic of working with teens and a more intense concentration on permanency options for older youth.

It was through SIF that Brayden McCleery met Child and Family Services supervisor Lisa Marino, whose commitment lead her to go considerable lengths to reunite him with his younger brother Tyler – she was determined to make a kinship connection. After being in a group home, reconnecting with his brother and moving into a family home filled with acceptance and love has changed Brayden’s life forever. In his eyes, family means “togetherness.” His family is his safe zone.

To read the McCleerys' full story, please visit our website.