Families Rising Minnesota represents Families Rising services for Minnesota adoptive, foster, and kinship families.
In Minnesota, Families Rising operates Families Rising Minnesota (formerly Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections), which provides a statewide network of support for active and prospective adoptive, foster, and kinship care families. Families Rising Minnesota’s ongoing support includes: in-person and virtual parent support groups, peer to peer mentoring, youth connections, and training. Additionally
Families Rising MN actively collaborates with and provides training to child welfare professionals working within the state of Minnesota.
Families Rising MN offices will be closed on November 27th & 28th.
If you are facing a crisis situation, please call 911 or contact your local Children's Mental Health Service Provider.
Post-moderation will be turned on for both days and will be removed when we return to the office on Monday, December 1st.
If you need to contact someone at our office, please email Melissa Greene, Program Manager, at [email protected].
10/06/2025
We are excited to announce that Families Rising will be exhibiting at Families Rising 50th Annual Adoption and Foster Care Conference on October 6 – 8, 2025. 🎉🎉 Like or comment if you’ll be there! - via Event Platform
08/27/2025
Our hearts are with those in our Minneapolis community impacted by today’s horrific shooting. These preventable tragedies are inexcusable, and we will continue to work toward a city where all children have the safety to thrive.
11/27/2024
HOLIDAY CLOSURE
Families Rising MN offices will be closed on November 28th & 29th.
If you are facing a crisis situation, please call 911 or contact your local Children's Mental Health Service Provider. Post-moderation will be turned on for both days and will be removed when we return to the office on Monday, December 2nd.
If you need to contact someone at our office, please email Melissa Greene, Program Manager, at [email protected].
11/21/2024
For more than 50 years, Families Rising (formerly NACAC) has been dedicated to ensuring every child finds a safe, permanent, loving, and culturally competent family. Our mission remains crucial, as thousands of children and youth across North America still await families to care for them.
Your contribution is vital to continuing our mission. Every dollar donated helps us amplify the voices of those with lived experience, assist parents and caregivers, educate child welfare professionals, and champion the well-being of children and families.
Join us in making a difference. Together, we can ensure that all children have the opportunity to grow up in permanent, loving, and supportive families.
11/18/2024
This National Adoption Month, we celebrate the families formed through adoption while continuing to uplift those at the center of this work: adoptees and those awaiting adoption. Did you know that more than one in five kids in foster care awaiting adoption are teens ages 13-17? These young people are capable of making decisions about their lives, and their input is invaluable toward more meaningful placements.
Have you registered for the next session of our lived expert-led training series?
Phoenix Santiago’s interactive training is designed to strengthen collaboration between child welfare professionals. Supervisors and staff will gain best practices for regular check-ins, maintaining professional boundaries, overcoming imposter syndrome, and more to build stronger, healthier teams.
Every child has a right to a permanent, loving family. For thousands of children in foster care each year, adoption helps achieve that. This National Adoption Month, we celebrate the adoptive families that embrace young people for who they are and allow them to feel proud of where they come from.
This year’s theme, "Honoring Youth: Strengthening Pathways for Lasting Bonds," emphasizes the importance of meaningful community connections and a sense of identity for youth throughout their lives. Placing young people in foster care with families who understand and affirm their identity paves the way for long-term stability and well-being. Learn more from the Children’s Bureau: https://www.childwelfare.gov/adoptionmonth/
09/25/2024
🌟 Attention Minnesota Caregivers! 🌟
We’re excited to announce that Families Rising Minnesota is offering 100 scholarships for our upcoming four-part virtual training series! This series will explore the challenging truths of adoption and the foster care system, equipping you with essential knowledge and tools.
Each session is led by experts who have personal experience as adoptees or individuals who have been in foster or kinship care. Plus, the entire series will be recorded—whether you attend live or not, you’ll have access to all recordings.
Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity! Use the link below to register: https://wearefamiliesrising.org/minnesota-lived-expert.../
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Families Rising MN posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The North American Council on Adoptable Children offers and operates Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections, a statewide support program for Minnesota adoptive, foster, and kinship families with a variety of services, including Facebook, in person, and parent-to-parent support groups, youth support, family activities, and weekend retreats. This work grew out of the Adoption Support Network, founded in 2009.
Today, the Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections pages create strong, diverse communities where parents share struggles, trade parenting tips and strategies, celebrate joys, and gain insight. After reading the guidelines below, request to join these groups by filling out this survey.
On the Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections Facebook groups, we share stories, strategies, resources, and insights related to our parenting journeys. Only share posts directly related to supporting children, fostering better family functioning and relationships, or strengthening this community. Posting deliberately disruptive statements, intentionally derailing conversations, using intentionally inflammatory language, and frequently posting items for sale will not be tolerated.
These Facebook groups provide a safe, confidential space. All participants must respect other group members’ privacy. Because we share our private thoughts, feelings, and struggles in these groups, nothing viewed here should ever be shared with anyone outside of the group. Participants must protect children’s and caseworkers’ privacy. Do not reveal any of their identifying information (such as names or photos). Our groups are secret, but any group member can access personal Facebook profiles if the proper privacy settings on personal pages are not implemented. Instructions for altering privacy settings are below. All participants should keep in mind that although it is required that participants keep group discussions confidential, people could choose to violate this rule and share information.
In these groups, we engage in respectful dialogue and protect our diverse community. Diversity provides varied experiences to learn from—not everyone in the group will share your faith, ideals, beliefs, or ideas. These aspects of life are important, but each group member must be respectful of other individuals, identities, religions or lack of religion, and principles. Do not post notices of events at locations that are discriminatory to certain groups. Ignore or scroll past things you dislike or disagree with. Political debates are not permitted. Discriminatory language, name-calling, profanity, personal attacks, attacks or insults against specific groups, and comments meant to harass, threaten, or abuse another individual or type of individual will not be tolerated.
In Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections groups, we share our struggles without denigrating others. Express personal frustrations, but use “I” statements instead of placing blame, insults, or anger onto other people. Demeaning, degrading, or threatening the dignity of a child, a caseworker, another parent, or anyone else will not be tolerated.
As a group member, you can be part of the solution. If you feel that there is a threat to these groups or a violation of the above guidelines, refrain from responding directly. Instead, report a post to the moderators by clicking the “report post” from the drop-down menu. Participants can also report a person by private messaging the moderators. Moderators will respond to every complaint on a case-by-case basis within one business day.
Violating these rules can result in removal of posts or removal from the group. Periodically, NACAC staff will review these values and guidelines to ensure inclusivity and accessibility for all Minnesota families.
Additional notes:
NACAC staff who moderate the Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections groups include Ginny Blade, Mary Boo, Barb Clark, Kari Fletcher, Nitara Frost, Ashley Hanson, Karla King, Amy Kinney, Lucius Luther, Mary Lyons, Deb Reisner, and Fonda Smith. To contact a moderator, click their name and find the “Message” option at the top of their profile, or go to Messenger, click “new message,” and type their name in the “To” section.
Search for specific posts or topics by typing a relevant keyword in the search bar on the left side of the page. After searching, filter the posts according to date posted, source, and location.
On group pages, all group members will be able to post in the group. To do so, visit the group page, locate the status box near the top of the page, and determine whether your post includes a photo or video, a file, an event, etc. When finished writing a post, click the blue “post” button. Posts with the most likes, comments, and views often appear at the top of the page. If a post is not found, search for it. Pinned posts may not show up on mobile devices.
All Adoptive Foster Kinship Connection groups will be secret, but members may still be able to view personal profiles, depending on privacy settings. Change your privacy settings by clicking the arrow on the right corner of the screen and clicking “Settings.” In the menu bar on the left side of the screen, locate and click “Privacy.” From there, determine who can see your posts, photos, and profile.
Adoptive Foster Kinship Connections is funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services as part of the Permanency Support Services program. Department staff has access to all group pages and can view posts.
The views and opinions expressed on all group pages are the views of foster, adoptive, and kinship parents and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of NACAC and the department.
