A new year of Sparrow Services Grants

We started The Sparrow Fund about 10 years ago with a desire to encourage and support families growing their family through adoption. We did that exclusively by offering grants to families adopting internationally to cover the cost to enroll in programs that would give them medical reviews of child referrals and counsel them through the referral process. The grants allowed us to meet a real need for families who might not have received this type of support otherwise. 

What started small started to grow. We started offering training and connecting opportunities for foster and adoptive families including a marriage retreat Together Called which has become a community more than an event. We started serving in orphanages with the primarily goal of building relationships and helping both children and staff more deeply experience relationships. 

As our team grew in 2017, it was the right time to pause and ask if all we were doing reflected who we are and where we believe we should be. As we considered the grant program and our retreats and trainings both here and in China, the words caring for caregivers were imprinted on our hearts. That’s what we want to be about. While the 101 grants we gave to families absolutely met a need and did real good for children and families, our team agreed that we could do a better job aligning our grants with the vision of caring for caregivers. 

One of our Sparrow Services Grant families when they were in South Korea to adopt their daughter

We reimagined our grants and started our Sparrow Services Grant program in January 2018. Since then, we have brought 49 families into the program. We still help families access specialized medical professionals who will review their referral with them. But, we offer our Sparrow Services families more than just that. We walk with them; cheer them on; offer individualized support including but not limited to marriage support, a supplemental referral review from a narrative/relational lens, coaching to line up resources they may need once home, and personalized suggestions for building attachment. We commit to offering them pursuing care until they have been home with their child for a full year, no matter how long that may take. There’s no itemized list of all that a Sparrow Services Grants includes because we don’t want there to be a list. Lists feel too impersonal and limiting. We want to care for caregivers and help them in their becoming the caregivers they want to be. 

We have two open application windows annually–January through the end of March and June through the end of September. And, as of January 1, 2022, the application is fully online!

Click here to learn more and apply!

Giving Tuesday 2021

While Giving Tuesday is our biggest fundraiser of the year, it’s more about vision-raising than fundraising. We know that the more people we have holding us up, the more effective helpers we will be. Our hope is for people to catch the vision for what we do and where we are headed as we care for caregivers. We want you to be motivated to give from that place with a desire to make sure that care happens and that you are a part of it.

It’s been a hard year for many. We have set our Giving Tuesday 2021 goal high, in spite of and because of this season of heightened need for the families we serve. Our giving goal for Giving Tuesday on November 30th is $50,000: $15,000 for our counseling program, $15,000 for our grant program for adoptive families, and $20,000 for general operating. To help us get there, five generous, committed donors have pledged to match all gifts dollar for dollar up to $25,000. What that means is that whatever you give–small, medium, or large–your donation will be doubled until we reach $25,000.

We also want to give a little something to you not to convince you to give or pay you back for it. That would take away from the meaning of your gift. We just really like giving, and so do our friends at Advent Blocks. So, we’re randomly choose one Giving Tuesday donor to receive their own set of Advent Blocks to make their family Christmas celebration a little sweeter.

So, here’s how to join us:

  • Click on the yellow button on the top of our website that says DONATE and choose GIVING TUESDAY as the purpose.
  • Write a check to The Sparrow Fund, put GIVING TUESDAY in the memo field, and mail to 124 3rd Avenue Phoenixville PA 19460

FOUND discussion group for teens

The movie Found, released on Netflix October 20th, tells the story of three teen girls adopted from China as they explore their histories and travel back to China together. On Tuesday, November 16th at 8pm EST, we’re offering a space (via Zoom) for a small group of teens who were adopted themselves (not just from China) to gather to talk about the movie–what they noticed, what made sense to them, what didn’t make sense to them.

If you are the parent of a teen who may want to join us or are connected to one, forward this email or text them a screenshot of it. We’d love to have them part of it. They can let us know they are interested through this Google form: https://bit.ly/3GuTdI0

Questions? Email us info@sparrowfund.org.

Lunar New Year Resources

February 12th marks the start of the Year of the Ox and gives an opportunity for families to celebrate their child’s heritage in the case of families with children from China and other Asian countries as well as an opportunity for all families to talk about people all over the world and the significance of holidays for bringing families and communities together.

Here are some parent-friendly resources to inspire ideas for how you might be able to take the opportunity to connect with your children.

Readables

  • Chinese New Year – Did you know there’s a whole website dedicated to Chinese New Year? Make sure to explore all it has to offer including taboos to avoid like saying happy new year to someone still in bed!
  • 22 Things You Should Know – Why fish is a traditional food, what the lantern festival has to do with it, red envelopes, and what’s not allowed.
  • History.com’s Chinese New Year 2021 – Updated for the year of the ox, this is a nice overview to explain things like long noodles, house cleaning, and red envelopes.

Interesting videos to watch

  • Lunarfest 2021 – Click here to access Yale-China’s online offerings for families in light of COVID restrictions that have canceled in-person celebrations. They’ve creatively put together 16 virtual red envelopes with something special families can access each of the 16 days of celebration including trivia, watching martial arts, shadow puppet demonstrations, crafts, and recipes.
  • Fortune Tales, The Story of Lunar New Year – This 5-minute, child-friendly video explains very simply traditions and legends of Chinese New Year.
  • Bet You Didn’t Know – Did you know 1/6th of the world’s population celebrates the lunar new year? This 3-minute video published by the History Channel is a nice simple overview.
  • The Myth Behind the Chinese Zodiac – This 4-minute animation tells the story of the Great Race, the fable behind the 12 animals assigned to each year.
  • The Chinese Zodiac Explained – In this TED talk from technologist and Chineasy entrepreneur ShaoLan Hseuh, you’ll learn about how asking your zodiac sign is a polite way to ask your age and other interesting cultural facts about the animals that mark each year.
  • Bringing in the New Year – This 3-minute video features a reading of Grace Lin’s children’s book Bringing in the New Year.
  • Chinese Dragon Dance – This video of traditional Chinese New Year festivities was filmed in Shanghai in 2011 and is fun for kids and grownups alike to watch.

Crafts + Activities

  • Paper lanterns – Find here some easy instructions for a classic craft that you can use to decorate for the holiday.
  • Good luck banner – This will take you to easy instructions for making a traditional new year banner and an explanation to why it’s displayed upside down.
  • Lion dance puppet – With this template, you can make a lion dance puppet that looks like the ones in traditional parades.
  • Printable red envelope template – The template is free, but it may end up costing you something since traditional red envelopes with money inside are a traditional gift for Chinese New Year.
  • Chinese character decorations – Click here to download printables for 8 different Chinese characters (faith, hope, love, friendship, luck, courage, peace, and wisdom) that you can hang up as is or invite your children to decorate.
  • Chinese New Year dragon cake – Bake a few bundt cakes and then have fun decorating this dragon as a family.
  • 35 Children’s books about Chinese New Year – A list with reviews of each children’s book title related to Chinese New Year.
  • Celebrating Chinese New Year activity book – This link takes you to Lifeline Adoption Agency’s free resource with recipes, information, and crafts for your family.

Giving Tuesday 2020

For us, Giving Tuesday always has been more about vision-raising than fundraising. We know that the more people we have holding our work and us up, the more effective we will be. We want you to catch the vision for what we do and where we are headed as we care for caregivers. And, we want that to be what motivates you to give – a desire to make sure that care happens and that you are a part of it.

It’s been a hard year for many. We have set our Giving Tuesday 2020 goal high, in spite of and because of this season of heightened need. Our giving goal is $30,000: $10,000 for our counseling program, $10,000 for our grant program for adoptive families, and $10,000 for general operating. To help us get there, three generous, committed donors have pledged to match all gifts dollar for dollar up to $15,000. 

We also want to give to you not because we want to convince you to give to us or pay you back in some way for donating. That negates the meaning of a gift. We just want you to know how grateful we are for you, the people who help us keep helping. And, simply put, we love giving.

When you give $50 or more on Giving Tuesday, your gift will be doubled as it gets matched, and we’ll send you two hand-lettered Scripture printables created by our friend Rachel at Minipress. And, they really are altogether lovely.

Here’s how you can join us:

  • Click on DONATE on the top of the page and select “Giving Tuesday” from the dropdown list.
  • Text GIVE to 855.618.1364
  • Send a check to The Sparrow Fund with Giving Tuesday in the memo line and send to 124 3rd Avenue Phoenixville PA 19460

OH HAPPY DAY 2020

Our most perfect design ever.

They really couldn’t be more perfect for right now. We think all our last days of online school, virtual graduation days, wedding watching parties at home, quarantined birthdays, and Father’s Day (yeah, that’s coming up) need them.

Shirts are a super soft triblend and come in toddler, youth, and grownup sizes. Order through THIS ONLINE FORM for $20 a shirt plus a $5 flat-rate shipping cost no matter how many you order.

And, help us spread the word! We want to sell 50 of our in-stock shirts this week to raise money so that we can keep serving children and families during these challenging days and for many more days to come!

Encouragement from a faraway land

We asked some of our friends in China to send us short video messages that we could share with you.

From a student friend.

From one of our translators.

From a young woman who grew up in the orphanage and worked there before starting a business from home:

From orphanage administrator friends.

From the son of an orphanage administrator who is destined to be an international journalist sensation, we think.

We were okay…until we weren’t.

When we arrived at the resort Thursday, March 12th, one day before the masses would arrive, things were just starting to heat up. We were paying attention to it all——everyone was——but we were within the state guidelines for group gatherings (which at the time encouraged a limit of 250 people). Even still, we put extra safeguards in place for everyone’s comfort; we wanted to make sure people were safe and felt safe. A few attending couples cancelled, but not many, and all our speakers were still on board. Then, Friday morning, things escalated fast. In moments, we went from arranging raffles and alphabetizing name tags to an emergency board meeting in a storage closet where we made the hard decision to cancel. We knew that would mean a lot of disappointed people—many of whom were already en route from 15 different states; we cried over that. But, we knew the decision had to be made, and it has been confirmed over and over again since.

We are together called to live out our mission to care for caregivers no matter the cost. And, the people we are together called to serve are infinitely more important than any program we work so hard to offer.

Please take some time to click over to our Facebook group to admire the artwork and applaud the artists who would have been featured at an art show of sorts at Together Called 2020. After we had set them all up, we took them all down, then set them up once again so that we could take pictures of them. We wanted each artist to see them, and we wanted you to see them too.

Sneak Peek at Together Called 2020 Breakout Sessions

Here’s a sneak peek at what we have planned in addition to hearing from Curt Thompson and Ross and Staci King.

Preconference Session Friday Afternoon: Building Connection and Making Parenting More Fun

Parenting any child can be stressful, but parenting children with special emotional needs can tax one’s emotional resources to the limit—and beyond. Even still, the deepest desire for most parents is to feel deeply connected with their child, whatever behavior or needs may exist. Theraplay was developed out of attachment-based methods for parent-child play and emotional engagement to meet that desire. Used in schools, therapy centers, and family therapy programs, Theraplay can bring fun and connection to family relationships through social connection play and practicing the principles of Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge with kids of varied ages and development. At this preconference workshop, you will be guided through games, practice exercises, and reflection moments designed to build your repertoire of parent-child connection skills…and maybe even parent-parent while we’re at it!

About the speakers:
Anne M. Coleman, PhD, & Rand Coleman, PhD, are the parents of two adopted children and one birth child. While living in Green Bay, WI, they provided emergency foster care to over 30 children in need. They eventually transitioned into long-term foster care, adopting a sibling pair who had emotional and attachment needs. Through the process, they learned and developed parenting strategies specific to youth with a history of trauma and having serious behavioral difficulty. Theraplay was integrated into their daily approach. Originally trained as a neuroscientist, Anne taught science courses for various programs, eventually becoming Chair of the Science Department at Cabrini University. While there, she conducted and published research on educational methods and on attachment therapy. She is now an Associate Dean at Rosemont College. Trained as a neuropsychologist, Rand has worked in both residential care and private practice. Clinical work in residential care focused on care for youth with Autism, while clinical work in private practice has been a combination of child evaluation and attachment-based therapy. Currently, he works at Cornerstone Therapy & Wellness in Malvern, PA.

Saturday Afternoon Breakout Sessions:

Big, Hard, Scary Things and the Brain

Some of our kids have been through so much in their short lives. Some of our kids have only known our family their entire lives. Some of our kids have never experienced a family before ours. All of these kids have trauma. Trauma sculpts the way our kids view the world and the way their brain interacts with life events. Using a hands-on, collaborative activity, this workshop will give you insight to how our children’s brains (and ours) work and are impacted by traumatic experiences and practical ways to help all the brains in your family.

About the speakers:
Michelle Catania is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Connecticut. She holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Southern Connecticut State University and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with certification in Elementary Education from Franklin Pierce University. She has expertise in brain-based disorders including ADHD, Autism, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. She was a preschool teacher for over 15 years and has children of her own, two biologically and one through special needs adoption. She was born and raised in San Diego, California but has grown to love the seasonal changes in New England where she lives with her husband and three children. She enjoys scrapbooking, hot chocolate, and playing in the snow. And, she loves her job where she can share her passion for Christ and her love for families.

Olivia Dimmig has been a registered nurse working in public health since 2016. She has experience caring for families via the Nurse-Family Partnership home visiting program which empowers vulnerable, first-time moms to transform their lives and create better futures for themselves and their babies. And, she is the newest addition to The Sparrow Fund team! Aspects of her work that most excite her are fostering maternal-child engagement, empowerment, and resilience. She and her husband Brent live in Phoenixville, PA with their infant daughter.

Building Family Connections Through Theraplay

Children drive each other crazy, and then they gang up on the parents—or at least it can feel that way! Put that energy and emotional intensity to good purpose through use of Theraplay principles and activities. Developed as a method of helping youth with Autism or behavioral dysregulation disorders, Theraplay has grown into one of the most used attachment-based therapy programs around the world. Easy to learn, fun, socially interactive activities can give children an experience of safety, connection, and emotional engagement with each other and with caregivers. Activities can be adapted for classrooms, family vacations, one-on-one nurture moments, and facilitating sibling connection. Come ready to practice numerous individual and group Theraplay games, insuring you take away immediately applicable skills in addition to head knowledge.

About the speakers:
Anne M. Coleman, PhD, & Rand Coleman, PhD, are the parents of two adopted children and one birth child. While living in Green Bay, WI, they provided emergency foster care to over 30 children in need. They eventually transitioned into long-term foster care, adopting a sibling pair who had emotional and attachment needs. Through the process, they learned and developed parenting strategies specific to youth with a history of trauma and having serious behavioral difficulty. Theraplay was integrated into their daily approach. Originally trained as a neuroscientist, Anne taught science courses for various programs, eventually becoming Chair of the Science Department at Cabrini University. While there, she conducted and published research on educational methods and on attachment therapy. She is now an Associate Dean at Rosemont College. Trained as a neuropsychologist, Rand has worked in both residential care and private practice. Clinical work in residential care focused on care for youth with Autism, while clinical work in private practice has been a combination of child evaluation and attachment-based therapy. Currently, he works at Cornerstone Therapy & Wellness in Malvern, PA.

Loving the Broken People of a Broken System

Most people sign on as foster parents with an enthusiasm to care for vulnerable children. But, what about when those children are difficult to love? And–even more challenging–what about all of the other broken people in the broken system? This workshop will explore biblical encouragements, real-life experience, and practical strategies for engaging with and, ultimately, loving biological parents, social workers, judges, and other foster parents.

About the speaker:
Jamie Finn is the biological, adoptive, and foster mother of 4-6 children. When she’s not homeschooling, changing diapers, playing Pokemon, making slime, and singing “Let it Go,” she spends her time encouraging, equipping, and serving foster and adoptive parents. She is the host of the Real Mom Podcast and the author of Foster the Family Blog which is read by 100,000 people each month and has been featured in over 20 online and print publications. Jamie serves as the director of Foster the Family, a nonprofit which seeks to encourage and support foster and adoptive families, mobilize the church and community for foster care and adoption, and advocate for vulnerable children. Jamie and her middle school sweetheart and husband of 14 years, Alan, live in New Jersey with their children.

Coregulation: The Key to Attachment Parenting

Parenting is hard. Parenting in adoption is harder. Parenting through attachment trauma can seem almost impossible. Coregulation offers a tool that parents can implement both for their own regulation as well as for their children. Come to explore both the science behind coregulation and the art of implementing coregulation. This breakout will involve experiential learning, giving you opportunity to practice techniques during the session as well as learn about specific resources that can be helpful to children of all ages.

About the speaker:
Rachel Harrison, LCPC, NCC is a therapist and owner of the practice Trauma Specialists of Maryland with two locations in Frederick, Maryland. She is also a trainer of therapists, offering training in working with adoptive families, attachment and EMDR Therapy. She is an Approved Consultant with EMDRIA, consulting on cases with therapists across the country who are doing both trauma and attachment work with clinical populations. Rachel is an adjunct faculty member of Hood College, teaching courses in the graduate Clinical Counseling program. She has worked with adoptive families for 21 years in the clinical setting but also has “real-life experience” raising 2 adopted boys of her own. Rachel has a passion for treating trauma and for improving attachment between parents and their children.

When Two Worlds Collide

The greatest times of conflict in relationships often arise when one person’s history intersects with another person’s history. Parenting is no different. Some of the toughest moments in parenting occur when our child’s history and beliefs collide with our history, motivations, and expectations. In this breakout, the Norths will help you understand the impacts of hard places on our children and how compassion and empathy should be the appropriate responses to their expressed needs. At the same time, we will walk you through how your own histories and experiences inform how you respond to your children.Our individual histories (both ours and our children’s) inform where we are but do not have to determine how our story as a family develops together.

About the speakers:
Ryan and Kayla North are experts on childhood trauma and its impact on children and adults. They spent 10 years as resource parents over which time they cared for 30 different children and adopted 4 who joined their 2 bio kids. They are both TBRI Practitioners and served as Lead Trainers for Empowered to Connect. Kayla is the Executive Director of Tapestry, a nonprofit that supports and equips churches with the tools and resources needed to help the families they serve. They are cofounders of One Big Happy Home and, together, have developed training materials for churches, schools, and parents educating them on trauma and its impacts. You can hear them on The Empowered Parent Podcast and read their writing on Empowered to Connect and at One Big Happy Home.

SPECIAL THANKS TO GOULDEY WELDING & FABRICATIONS, THE JOY BUILDERS, MADISON ADOPTION ASSOCIATES, REECE’S RAINBOW, AND ADAM REIMERS.

The Sparrow Fund
124 Third Avenue
Phoenixville PA 19460
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