Superkids Program

For the last decade, Gladney’s Superkids program has been sending adoption and medical professionals to visit orphanages and child welfare organizations in China and Taiwan. During these visits we are able to learn more about children waiting to be matched with adoptive families. The information we learn on these trips helps us to find permanent adoptive families. To date, more than 200 children that were seen by Superkids have been adopted by families in the United States as well as other countries. Many of these children would not have found the love and care of a family, without the Superkids program.

This program is currently active and supported by the Taiwan Child Welfare and Adoption organizations that Gladney partners with. The Superkids Program has been very successful in helping children find adoptive families, as well as providing the opportunity to exchange information and best practices in supporting children with special needs.

Twice a year, usually the Fall and Spring, Superkids teams travel to meet with waiting children. Gladney’s Superkids team works with both of our partner agencies in Taiwan to facilitate Superkids visits. During the visitation periods, through play and conversation, our teams are able to gain an additional level of understanding of a child’s abilities, skills, and personality. Through child centered activities, our teams are able to observe motor, communication, and cognitive skills. Our teams learn from caregivers more about the child’s physical surroundings, routine for daily activity, physical health, therapeutic care, and education. In return, this information helps us advocate to find a more suitable and prepared family for a waiting child. 

Gladney's Superkids Program Values:

• Every child deserves a loving family.
• Each child is special and is not defined by his/her special need.
• Gladney’s Superkids program cooperates with orphanages for the benefit of waiting children.
• Gladney believes in child-focused advocacy.
• Well-informed prospective adoptive parents are better prepared for caring for their child and for their future family as a whole.
• For children in orphanages who are not available for adoption or who continue to wait for adoptive families, Gladney’s Superkids volunteers train and educate the orphanage caregivers, in order to enrich the children’s lives and futures.

Be sure to follow the blog and join our private Taiwan Advocacy Facebook group  to follow along with our 2023 and 2024 trips, as well to learn about children we visit through this program.

If you are considering adoption from Taiwan, or if you are an adoption advocate, and would like additional information about our Superkids program, please contact [email protected]

Superkids Over the Years – 2007 and beyond!

As more and more families learned about, and became interested in adopting children with special needs, our Superkids program launched in 2007. This program emphasizes that “every child deserves a loving home” and that a special need does not make a child unadoptable. Superkids makes children visible to the thousands of families thinking about adoption. Our goal is always respectful and child-centered advocacy. Our Superkids program has looked different over the years- hosting over 20 in-person Superkids trips, six virtual trips, an adoptive parent guided visitation trip to China, and a US based hosting program in 2018.

In 2022, Gladney Center’s Superkids program was a proud corporate volunteer participant in the June 2022 Special Olympics in Orlando, Florida. We eagerly await participation in the 2026 Special Olympics, hosted in Minneapolis, Minnesota! Learn more about our Special Olympics by visiting our Superkids blog! No matter the “how” and “where” of our trips, we remain committed to our Superkids goal of knowing that every child deserves a loving family!