
	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	SERVICE PHILOSOPHY The theoretical framework that describes and explains an organization's approach to service.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.

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	Intercountry Adoption Services

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ICA 4: Service Philosophy

The program is guided by a service philosophy that:

establishes the child as the primary focus of the adoption service;
provides a logical approach for how program activities will meet the needs of children, parents, and families who receive adoption services; and
is based on program goals and the best available evidence of service effectiveness.

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	PURPOSE: Intercountry Adoption Services establish a permanent family for children who cannot be cared for or adopted in their country of origin and increase the well-being of adopted individuals and adoptive families.

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