The Kennys are a father/son team working to promote permanence for children in temporary care. In 1998, they co-founded Adoption in Child Time (ACT) to provide important information to foster and adoptive parents (www.adoptioninchildtime.org). ACT has also been instrumental in achieving several legislative changes in Indiana law giving an increased voice to foster parents. James and Pete have offered numerous seminars and workshops to train attorneys, case managers, mental health professionals, and foster/adoptive parents in the areas of foster care and adoption law. Finally, they have jointly published several articles and are the co-authors of two earlier books: A Daily Journal for Foster Parents and The Right to a Permanent Home.
James
James has a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the U. of Mainz (1962) and a second doctorate in Anthropology from Indiana University (1974.) He also earned a master’s in Social Work from Loyola University in 1957. He has published articles in numerous professional journals and popular magazines, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, Ethnology and the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine. He is the author of numerous books on family and child care, including Whole Life Parenting, Happy Parenting, and Bonding and the Case for Permanence. He and his wife have just completed Parnting Tomorrow’s Child. Most importantly, he and his wife have raised 12 children, four of whom were adopted. In addition, they have parented many foster children, mostly teenage boys.
Peter
Following the completion of his undergraduate studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, Peter entered the Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington with the goal of eventually doing something about this problem of "foster care drift." He spent one semester studying in London, England. Since 1997, he has devoted his law practice to representing parents who wish to give permanent homes to children through adoption, and also to foster parents who wish to have legal representation in a variety of settings. He is the Executive Director of ACT. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Foster Care and Adoption Association (http://www.ifcaa.org) and the Advisory Board of Fostering Families Today magazine (http://www.fosteringfamiliestoday.com). In his words: “Four of my siblings were adopted and my parents opened their home to foster children. Adoption and foster care have been a part of my life since my earliest memories as a child.”