Our Mission…

Helping Families Become Whole Again

aka Celia Center Inc   |   Los Angeles, CA   |  www.CeliaCenter.org

Celia Center is a non-profit organization based in greater Los Angeles, which offers support for all Members of the Foster Care and Adoption Constellation, those including birth parents, adopted and fostered individuals, foster, kinship, adoptive and legal guardianship families. We also educate those working in the field of child welfare, about best practices in foster care and adoption, those including social workers, therapists, doctors, attorneys, nurses, and teachers. We provide a safe space for the Adoption and Foster Care community to join together to repair the losses, share stories, thoughts, feelings, ideas, receive psycho- education, process grief, learn about search and reunion, and build strong lifelong bonds and connections.

Our programs include:

Adopt Salon Constellation Support Groups

National Adoption Conferences

Celia Center Arts Festivals

Child and Family Programming

Wolf Healings

Celia Center is a registered 501c3 Founded by Jeanette Yoffe, Former Foster youth and Adoptee, while searching for others in the world like herself. A transplant from New York, with a “chameleon like persona” she wrote a play about her life growing up in foster care to adoption, entitled “What’s Your Name, Who’s Your Daddy?”  When she learned there were 34,000 children living in foster care, she decided to change careers from theatre performer to Foster Care Social Worker, pursuing a career in Mental Health, and working with children in the child welfare system. Soon after, she started a group private practice, Yoffe Therapy, training therapists to be Foster Care and Adoption Competent in the field, utilizing best practices in Foster Care and Adoption.

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Mental Health Conferences bring awareness to the adoption and foster care experience. Our conferences are designed to educate, empower and inspire those connected by foster care and adoption.

Participants gain insight into the complex, embodied and often multifaceted issues related to adoption and foster care. Our thought leaders and presenters bring practical, best practices and meaningful tools that can ultimately lead to healing and integration of the experience.

Our conferences are recommended for all members of the Foster Care and Adoption Constellation and those treating/working with the Foster Care and Adoption population i.e. Foster Youth Alumni, Adult Adoptees, Adoptive Parents, Foster-Adoptive Parents, Birth Parents, Social Workers, Psychotherapists and anyone connected by Foster Care and Adoption.

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Celia Center Arts Festival features the works of artists who use their creativity to express their experiences as individuals who were adopted and/or in foster care across many mediums.

Entitled “Adopting Resilience, Fostering the Spirit of Creativity: The Voices of the Fostered and Adopted” the festival will feature stories and backgrounds of many, and seeks to bring together the voices that are often left out of the conversation on foster care and adoption.

The Festival gives the Foster Care and Adopted Person a spotlight, with the hopes of deepening the foster care and adoption conversation in Los Angeles and worldwide.

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Adopt Salon Constellation Support Groups are monthly open support group for all members of the Adoption Constellation: First-Birth Parents, Adoptees, Former Foster Youth, Foster Parents, Legal Guardians, Adoptive Parents and Kinship Families.

A place for the Adoption & Foster Care community to come together to share stories, thoughts, feelings, ideas, receive psycho-education, process grief/loss, learn about search and reunion, and build strong bonds/connections.

Mayor Eric Garcetti Awarded Celia Center 10 years of Recognition for serving the Los Angeles Community in 2019!

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Wolf Healings with Foster and Adopted Youth at Wolf Connection in Acton, California. A home for rescued or abandoned wolves and wolfdogs. The wolves help all who come in contact with them learn how to re-focus their impulses, feelings, and emotions in a constructive way.

 The youth arrive as a special “pack”, and take a walk with the wolves learning about their connection, which is essence helps them understand our collective human need for attachment.

Being with the wolves helps youth understand the nature of human-animal relationships, and the circumstances which ultimately lead to love, support, and empowerment.

Together they learn they can accomplish anything, following the wolf’s rules of respect, loyalty, and leadership understanding collectively, when they work together, their efforts benefit the greater good of the pack!