Gladney Blog

With the holidays coming up, we have started to hear from Gladney Friends asking about opportunities to get involved and give back during this season of gratitude, reflection, and service. Thank you for your interest and your desire to make a difference! Wherever you live, here are multiple ways you can join in:

1. Gladney Angel Tree – Each year, we organize our own Angel Tree, in order to provide gifts for some of our expectant mother and birth mother clients and their children (if they have other children they are parenting). The women we provide gifts for are either making an adoption plan for their baby or have already placed a child for adoption through Gladney, and they are in need of a little extra support for their families around the holidays this year, due to financial challenges. Our Angel Tree also provides gifts for our Gladney Home clients, who are teen girls in foster care seeking to be adopted. We need your help to make their holiday wishes come true!
   
   If you are interested in donating gifts, please email mary.ownbey@gladney.org  for more details. You can get information about a specific angel you can shop for, or you can donate gift cards or make an online donation to Gladney, and others will do the shopping for you. You can let us know what works best for you!
   
   Last year, we provided gifts for 60 angels (24 adults and 36 children). Typically, donors spend around $75 - $100 on gifts for each angel. All gifts will need to be delivered/shipped to Gladney by end of day Monday, November 30, 2020. Please do not wrap your gift donations — they will be wrapped by volunteers after we ensure the gifts we have for all of the angels are balanced and sufficiently meet their needs and wants.
2. Notes of Encouragement – These are appreciated during the holidays and any time of year! You can write messages for teen girls in foster care who are clients in the Gladney Home, prospective adoptive families, Gladney caseworkers, or Child Protective Services caseworkers. Read the instructions and get started.
3. Minted Holiday Cards and Gifts – Save 20% while creating your holiday cards and shopping personalized gifts, and Minted will donate 15% to Gladney! Use the promo code: FUNDRAISEGLADNEY. Start shopping on Minted. This promo code is valid through December 31, 2020. Send us one of your cards, so we can share in your holiday joy!
4. Adoption.com Heart Shop – Share your heart for adoption while you wear it! You can purchase Adoption Rocks Your Home t-shirts, sweatshirts, and tote bags as gifts for yourself and others. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Gladney. Browse the merch. Pre-orders will be taken through November 22, 2020, and orders will be fulfilled and shipped out by December 1, 2020.
5. AmazonSmile Shopping – Support Gladney as you shop for holiday gifts! Choose Gladney as the charity for your AmazonSmile account, login to AmazonSmile instead of Amazon when you shop, and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to Gladney. You can find Gladney using our EIN #: 75-0917409. This is an ongoing give back opportunity throughout the year. Get started!
6. AmazonSmile Charity Lists – Throughout the year, we maintain lists of needs for clothing, personal care items, and recreation items. We would appreciate you helping with these ongoing, tangible needs, during the holidays and any time of year.
   • Gladney Home clients (teen girls in foster care): bit.ly/GladneyHomeList 
   • Expectant mother clients: bit.ly/GladneyExpectantMomsList
7. Gift Cards – One goal of our Gladney Home program is to provide the teen girl clients in foster care with normalcy, and some of the ways we do that are through group meals, activities, and shopping trips in the community. These are an ongoing need throughout the year.
   • WalMart, Target, Old Navy
   • Rosa’s Café, Panera Bread, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, La Madeleine, Torchy’s Tacos, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Chick-fil-a, Chipotle, Zoe’s Kitchen, Blaze Pizza
   • Tickets/Passes to Dallas/Fort Worth area events (zoos, museums, sporting events, etc.): Please email us to confirm dates and schedules before purchase.
   • Mail gift cards to: Gladney Center for Adoption, 6300 John Ryan Drive, Fort Worth, TX, 76132.
8. Financial Donations – You can support Gladney’s mission of Creating Bright Futures Through Adoption by making a gift online to our year-end giving appeal. Family is, and always will be, essential. We believe every child deserves a loving and caring family, and Gladney Friends are essential to our mission – we cannot do what we do and serve who we serve without you!

If you know of a company, faith community, social group, family members, or personal friends who are looking for ways to give back during the holiday season, please let them know about these opportunities. We appreciate you being Adoption Advocates and sharing about Gladney where you live! Thank you for not only having a compassionate heart, but for putting your compassion into action. We and the clients we serve are grateful. Happy Holidays!

Today, the expectant mothers we serve have more complex needs than the clients we served 10 years ago, and we have adjusted our services to meet them where they are.

Expectant mothers experiencing unplanned pregnancies and mothers with young children who contact us considering making an adoption plan are sometimes coming from a challenging, vulnerable place. While some expectant mothers have a strong support system and access to resources, others may be in an abusive relationship, unemployed, experiencing homelessness, or have mental health or substance abuse treatment needs. The women Gladney serves range from teenagers to women in their forties, with an average age of 26, and 49% of the women already have other children. More than 70% of the women are from Texas, and the remainder of the women are from other states across the U.S., including 15 states outside Texas in 2019 alone.

As we shared in the 2019 Gladney Annual Report, Gladney transitioned the purpose of our residential home to be the Gladney Home for foster youth, serving girls between the ages of 11 and 17 who are seeking permanency through adoption. Our current referral partners are Child Protective Services, Our Community Our Kids (CPS Foster Care Region 3B - North Texas), Family Tapestry (CPS Region 8 - Bexar County), and 2INgage (CPS Region 2 - Northwest Texas).

One month ago today, 8 runners finished the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon, representing Gladney with each step. In addition to that once-in-a-lifetime experience and physical feat, they raised more than $42,000 in donations to support Gladney’s mission and serve others. We are so proud of and grateful for #TeamGladney!

Jenae is a Gladney Mom, and she will be running the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon as part of Gladney's charity team. In addition to physically training, she has been fundraising to support Gladney in creating bright futures through adoption. Thank you, Jenae!

Matthew is a Gladney Friend, and he will be running the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon as part of Gladney's charity team. In addition to physically training, he is fundraising to support Gladney in creating bright futures through adoption. Thank you, Matthew!

Congratulations to three Tarrant County non-profits who are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2019! They are doing great work in our community and we appreciate their missions.

The 2018 TCS New York City Marathon is coming up on November 4th. Between now & then, we'll be introducing you to Gladney's charity runners.

The 2018 TCS New York City Marathon is coming up on November 4th. Between now & then, we'll be introducing you to Gladney's charity runners.

The 2018 TCS New York City Marathon is coming up on November 4th. Between now & then, we'll be introducing you to Gladney's charity runners.