The Adoption Project
Low-income children who experience abuse and neglect suffer higher rates of life-long negative physical, mental, and economic burdens.
These result in an increased interaction with the criminal justice and mental health systems, lost productivity and low earnings, difficulty sustaining healthy relationships, and an overall reduction in life quality and expectancy. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the lifetime financial impact on our national economy of childhood maltreatment and neglect runs over $120 billion.
LevittQuinn’s Adoption Project seeks to prevent these consequences and improve outcomes for children by using our legal expertise to create stable, permanent, and loving homes.
LevittQuinn is the only organization of its kind in Los Angeles County to provide both free and sliding scale private (non-Dependency) adoption services, often preventing abandoned children from entering the foster care system. Since its inception, LevittQuinn’s Adoption Project has helped to finalize more than 2,000 adoptions. Co-founder Grace Quinn began early on to offer limited adoption help. LevittQuinn’s Director of Legal Services, Lucia Reyes, joined LevittQuinn in 2002 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. With funding from Pillsbury Winthrop, she created a full scope project to meet the ever-growing community need for private adoption services. As a result of the program’s growing reputation, LevittQuinn was selected as a 2012 recipient of the U.S. Congress’ Angel in Adoption award, presented to recipients who demonstrate a commitment to improving the lives of children in need of permanent, loving homes.