Rounds Nominates The Gathering Well of Sioux Falls for Angels in Adoption Award

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) announced that he has nominated The Gathering Well for the 2024 Angels in Adoption award, presented by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption (CCAI).

"It is an honor to nominate The Gathering Well for this year's Angels in Adoption award," said Rounds. "This nonprofit organization has helped connect foster and adopted children with families in the Sioux Falls area. The Gathering Well not only cares for families' immediate needs but also provides children and parents with tools to navigate the changes that come with fostering and adoptions. They are doing the important pro-life work that has a proven ability to change lives."

"When a family is able to learn, practice and implement trauma-informed care, they are beginning generational change. These courageous families are cycle-breakers. If we desire for our state to care well for the children God has given us, it is our duty to empower families to be as healthy and resourced as possible," said Cara DeHaan, Executive Director of The Gathering Well. "A foster or adoption placement isn't the end of the journey. It is the beginning."

The Gathering Well is an adoption and foster care support community that supports, educates and inspires adoptive and foster families with relevant connection opportunities and resources. As a nonprofit, they offer community and tools to adoptive and fostering families. They host free monthly gatherings with adoptive and foster families in the area where they offer meals and training. The Gathering Well also offers more in-depth trainings on caregiver health, trauma-informed parenting and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®). You can learn more by going to their website at https://gathering-well.org/ or by watching a joint video with Rounds and The Gathering Well.

They also partner with the University of South Dakota (USD) to provide hands-on training for Occupational Therapy (OT) graduate students at their monthly gatherings. "The Gathering Well is such a great organization to work with," said Michelle Arens, an OT student at USD. "I have been volunteering with them for about 4 years now and am so glad I've had this opportunity! It has greatly affected me and everything I have learned here will help me be a better OT in the future. This program is such a blessing to so many families and has so many great people involved with it!"

"Volunteering with The Gathering Well has been nothing short of an amazing experience. Each month I look forward to building a greater connection with the children, hearing about their lives, and empowering them through TBRI® principles," said Brook Wilson, an OT student at USD. "Everyone on the staff works together to make it a wonderful night for parents and children alike."

The Gathering Well founders, Cara DeHaan and Shannon Ehli, are certified TBRI® practitioners and have experience themselves with the joys, and sometimes hardships, of adoption. Cara and her husband Eric are parents to five children, two of whom are adopted from Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Shannon is the mother of three children, one of whom was adopted from Haiti at the age of six. They understand the journey and started this nonprofit as a way to come alongside other families with much needed community and education. "It is easy for caregivers to feel alone after bringing a new member into their family," said Cara. "When the excitement fades and traditional parenting methods are no longer effective, families often feel they don't 'fit' into their communities, churches, and even extended family any more. Our desire is to meet them where they are at, equip them with the most recent evidence-based practices and rekindle their hope."

Rounds is a member of the CCAI. Each year, Members of Congress are invited to nominate an outstanding family or organization from their state to receive an Angels in Adoption award. CCAI is a 501(c)3 nonpartisan organization dedicated to raising awareness about the tens of thousands of orphans and foster children in the United States and the millions of orphans around the world in need of permanent, safe and loving homes through adoption. For more information, visit CCAI's website.

Rounds is currently accepting applications for 2025 Angels in Adoption Award. For more information, please visit rounds.senate.gov/adoption.

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