Michelle and Jeremy Harrell recognized by CCAI for making extraordinary contributions to adoption, permanency, and child welfare.

The coming years will likely show a catchup of adoptions that were delayed during COVID-19. It will take years to see whether adoption rates rise post-Roe, though those who work in the field hope to see more support for birth parents and children implemented sooner.

While adoption may be an option, it’s not necessarily so straightforward, and the process can also be tricky to navigate, both for birth parents and hopeful adoptive parents.

Spurred by his own experiences, Harrell co-founded The Adoption Project in Nashville with the hope of creating policies that make the process easier for all parties involved in both private adoptions and those through the foster care system.

Officials with the organization said the foster care and adoption systems can only be improved if more families sign up for them.

Jeremy Harrell, who with his wife adopted two sisters, is using his former experience in public policy to assist adoptive parents in Tennessee.

A non-profit is talking about the importance of adoption and fostering now more than ever.

The Adoption Project is a Tennessee non-profit that advocates for public policy changes to make adoption and foster care easier for families.

A new organization working to make the adoption process smoother is hoping to make Tennessee the most adoption-friendly state.

From his desk at the state Capitol, Jeremy Harrell called the Department of Children’s Services to learn more about how adoptions through foster care work.

“People have done really good work moving us forward,” Harrell said. “We’re going to just try to accelerate that as much as we can to significantly reduce the number of kids who age out of the system, shorten the time to finalize your adoption, and put kids in a safe, loving, permanent family.”

A new group with major ties to former Gov. Bill Haslam's administration is taking aim at new policy solutions for Tennessee's adoption and foster systems.

Driving the News: Jeremy Harrell and Jennifer Donnals, both of whom have deep ties to state government, will steer the project.

The Adoption Project will work with policymakers to propose changes to policy making it easier to build families through adoption.

New organization’s initial focus will be making Tennessee the most adoption-friendly state in the country.