Many adoptive and foster parents struggle to meet the trauma-related needs of their children, to build a cohesive family system, and to minimize stress and chaos in their homes. It’s exhausting work and caregivers are often left without support – or support that’s actually helpful – to guide them toward solutions and strategies that will improve life for their families. Project 1025 exists to help these caregivers and families.

After several years of research, Jana realized that the answer to a lot of the struggles adoptive and foster families is within their own families. By looking at the way families functions together, answers to problems can be found. By taking on a family systems lens, patterns and processes within the family offer clues to the root issues – the “why” behind the behavior. And by dealing with the root issues, caregivers can learn and use strategies that will actually change the way their family functions for the better. When caregivers make small changes to the way their family functions together, they inevitably improve the lives of every member of their family.

Approaching the challenges of foster and adoptive families through a family systems lens changes everything. Using a family systems lens not only helps every member of the family feel seen, heard, and valued, but it also actually meets the need of every family member. One change one caregiver makes can completely change their family dynamic, going from a stressed, overwhelmed family to a connected, whole family.

Project 1025 was created to provide the support caregivers and family members are searching for when navigating the complexities of foster care and adoption. So many caregivers and families desire nothing more than to help their children experience success and are willing to do anything to help their families’ lives improve. But, without accessible, effective support from professionals, they’re left without any help or guidance. Project 1025 exists to offer accessible coaching and resources for foster and adoptive families in effort to improve the lives of every family member.

Project 1025 offers individualized coaching for any member of foster and adoptive families – caregivers, siblings, adoptees, or former foster youth. Whether you’re struggling to make sense of your experiences, feeling hopeless or discouraged, or feeling like no one understands your story, coaching can help you move forward and improve your life.

The Story behind the Name

The name Project 1025 comes from Jana’s own family story. On October 25, 2007, she landed in Chicago with her parents, her brother, and her three new little brothers from Taiwan. Before she was even aware it was happening, her whole world changed – her family, her worldview, her responsibilities. Her new brothers had experienced more trauma than her family knew how to handle, and this required her whole family working together to survive each day. Without the accessibility of trauma-informed, adoption-informed resources, her family floundered as they experienced crisis after crisis. Project 1025 exists to help adoptive and foster families have the support and resources that her family did not have when they came home on October 25th.