Ampersand Families strives to be the employer of choice for extraordinary professionals who are committed to helping develop innovative and effective approaches to achieving and supporting permanency for older youth. .................................................................................................................................
Jen is a co-founder of Ampersand Families, and her passion for Ampersand’s mission comes from both her professional and personal experience in this field. She has spent 17 years working with teens and families in child welfare and adoption, and has provided national consultation, training and podcasts on adoption and youth permanency to workers and volunteers in all aspects of the child welfare field, including kids, families, graduate- and undergraduate-level students, public and private agencies, and legislators/government.
Jen’s experience also includes working closely with birth and adoptive parents, providing supervision in family and teen crisis intervention, and finding big success with the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ federal demonstration project, The Homecoming Project. Through this project, she worked intensely with teens under state guardianship and promoted innovative practices in the recruitment and retention of permanent families for the most ‘hard-to-place’ teens that had spent years in the public foster care system. Her work with a sibling group under that project also helped educate the community at large, being featured in an American RadioWorks documentary that aired on National Public Radio stations across the country.
Jen holds a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a licensed professional counselor.
Most importantly, Jen is also the adoptive parent to her son, who is now in his 20s, who joined her family during the summer of 2006.
Michelle has worked with youth in out-of-home care since 1989, her child welfare career has included front-line staff positions in residential settings, a home-based intensive supervision worker, and youth development work in a therapeutic foster care agency. Prior to co-founding Ampersand Families in October 2008, Michelle directed The Homecoming Project.
Michelle has developed and led workshops nationally and internationally for foster and adoptive parents, social workers, Guardians ad litem/CASA volunteers, and others involved in the lives of youth in care. She has authored professional articles and two books (in partnership with youth) aimed at helping youth engage in their own care. Her leadership was integral to the development a 12-unit permanent supportive housing program in St. Paul, Minnesota that is home to youth who became homeless upon leaving a residential placement.
Michelle’s first education into the world of child welfare came in high school when she was placed into foster care in Colorado. As a ‘graduate’ of foster care, Michelle is passionate about the need for system reform and the essential role that young people can take in leading child welfare to more effective, youth and family-focused strategies.
Since 1998, Michelle and her partner have provided a home and extended family to a number of otherwise homeless young people. She holds a master’s in social work from Augsburg College in Minneapolis (1994).
Meghan has worked with homeless youth and Minnesota waiting youth for 5 years. She is passionate and ready to work hard to find permanent families for teens. Meghan says that some of her favorite things about teenagers are their humor, energy, and realness. When she’s not working, Meghan can usually be found with her family and friends or volunteering at a program in Minneapolis for at-risk youth. Meghan has many interests, including being active outdoors, dancing, photography, writing, and listening to hip-hop.
Meghan has her master’s degree in social work from University of North Dakota.
Mark Hauck comes to Ampersand with a broad background in arts and education. He has been an arts administrator, teacher, and freelance theater artist and has spent many years of his career exploring the role of the arts in human development. His focus at Ampersand is to bring together the resources and passion of the community to help better serve youth and their families. Mark is the adoptive parent of a young man who ‘aged out’ of the foster care system, and then joined Mark’s family at age 22. His family was profiled on CNN online during the 2009 holiday season.
Mark is currently working on a book about ways in which the arts can act as a ‘spark’ to motivate and engage youth.
Joe has an education background and array of personal and professional experiences that enrich our permanency work. He has worked in public policy, advocacy and training to improve supports and promote systems change for people with disabilities. He strongly supports participation of consumers and their families in all planning processes with the ultimate goal of creating public services that promote inclusive, community supports for the people they serve. His years of parenting four children has inspired a passion for building enduring, permanent relationships for adolescents as a means to creating stability in their lives.
Ampersand Families recruits and supports
permanent families
for older youth,
and champions practices
in adoption and
permanency
that restore belonging,
dignity and hope.
