Over the past decade, Oklahoma has worked to strengthen adoption competency across child welfare, behavioral health, education, higher education, and community-based systems. What began with listening to families and individuals with lived experience evolved into a collaborative effort involving state agencies, university partners, providers, educators, community organizations, and family-serving programs.
Oklahoma's Journey: Building Adoption Competency Across Systems documents that experience and reflects on the partnerships, workforce development efforts, implementation strategies, and systems-change activities that helped shape Oklahoma's adoption competency journey over time.
The publication is intended to serve as a resource for leaders, practitioners, educators, policymakers, and organizations interested in strengthening adoption-competent services and supports for children, families, and individuals impacted by adoption, foster care, kinship care, and family separation.
Dr. Bonni Goodwin has played a central leadership role in advancing adoption competency efforts across Oklahoma. Through her work at the University of Oklahoma and in partnership with state agencies, providers, community organizations, and families, she has helped foster collaboration across systems to strengthen support for children, families, and individuals impacted by adoption, foster care, kinship care, and family separation.
Oklahoma's Journey reflects a decade of partnership, learning, implementation, and systems-change efforts informed by the experiences and contributions of families, lived-experience partners, practitioners, educators, researchers, and policy leaders across the state.
This work reflects the contributions of many individuals, organizations, and programs committed to strengthening support for children and families across Oklahoma.
Participating partners include:
Oklahoma's experience demonstrates that building adoption competency requires more than a single training or initiative. Sustainable change depends on partnerships, workforce development, family engagement, implementation support, and collaboration across systems.
Learn more about no-cost technical assistance and implementation support available through the National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services.
