The Minnesota Heart Gallery helps children and youth waiting
for adoptive families see themselves as they never have before.
Together, youth, photographers, and families raise community
awareness around adoption, foster care, and permanency.
Most importantly, these images are used to recruit families for
Minnesota's waiting youth, helping them to picture a more hopeful future.
All images featured on this site were captured by Minnesota Heart Gallery photographers who generously volunteer their time & talents.
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Youth & Family Photos Volunteer Make a Referral • Adopt
Youth in foster care often lack the photos that, for most children,
serve as a time-capsule documenting their childhood.
The Minnesota Heart Gallery provides the experience of a professional photo session that captures the unique personality and spirit of waiting youth.
After the session, each youth receives their own copy of the images, in both digital and print formats, with freedom to share and keep.
Please note: Minnesota's Heart Gallery is not the listing of the state's waiting children and youth.
Minnesota's official waiting children's photo listing can be found at FAM (not affiliated with the Minnesota Heart Gallery)
or by clicking the button below:
Ampersand Families’ Response to I.C.E. in our Community
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has devastating impacts on families—tearing families apart and leaving children without their parents/caregivers, with long-term impacts to the health and well-being of everyone involved.
At Ampersand Families, we work with families who have been impacted by the child welfare system, and we know that, whenever possible it is best for children to remain connected to their parents, relatives, kin, and community versus being placed with strangers.
Months before thousands of ICE agents were sent to Minnesota, we were already witnessing the negative effects of ICE. Families who would normally talk with us about being a support to their child in placement would no longer take our calls, leaving us helpless in our goal to keep children connected to their families. As a direct result of ICE in our communities, more children are now at risk of being placed into a stranger’s home through foster care when we know they have loving and supportive relatives and kin. This is not only devastating for children but also completely contradicts this administration’s promise to reduce wasteful spending and protect family values.
In the past few weeks, ICE’s presence in Minnesota has been highly visible, marked by aggressive and intimidating tactics that have sown chaos, instilled fear, and deeply traumatized youth, families, and residents throughout the state. The resulting forced family separations taking place in Minnesota are unconscionable.
Parents who are worried about being taken by ICE are now preparing legal documents called DOPAs (Delegation of Parental Authority). These are used to assign another person custody of their child(ren) should they not return home.
To our staff who understand the deep-rooted historical biases of the child welfare system, this forced separation of children and parents feels reminiscent of the taking of Native American children from their parents and being sent to boarding schools, or the sale of Black children during slavery. Shamefully, this is our history repeating itself, and the impacts to our child welfare system will last for decades, as demonstrated by the current overrepresentation of Native and Black youth in Minnesota’s child welfare system.
As video coverage unfolds, one after another, we see pregnant mothers being dragged through our streets, parents being pulled out of cars with their children in the back seat, and day care employees being stolen from their place of employment—all while our children are watching these traumatic events unfold right in front of their eyes—no doubt leaving an imprint they will remember for the rest of their lives with potential for setbacks in mental health, education, stability and overall wellbeing.
We also know that families have significantly altered their day-to-day living situations to stay safe. Many kids are no longer going to school, families are hiding in their homes, and neighbors are helping with food and other needs. Children thrive on stability, and this lack of stability leads to chronic stress and emotional exhaustion.
We must be clear that the effects of ICE impact all Minnesota children. Many daycares are no longer allowing children outside, schools are being closed, and high school walkouts have been a daily occurrence.
It is simply not healthy for children to live in constant anxiety.
It is also well known that there have been numerous attempts to slash America’s social safety net, with even deeper threats to those of us who live in Democratic states. In an already underfunded system, Ampersand Families and the wider child welfare system certainly should not be asked to serve an increase in children entering our child welfare system with less funding to meet the needs.
Today, we can see the cost in the tears of parents and children whose lives are forever altered. The ripple effects will be seen for years to come—not just in the child welfare system but in all the systems that intertwine—health care, mental health, juvenile justice, education.
Again, these actions are simply unconscionable.
As an agency, Ampersand Families implores everyone to take a stand in protecting youth and families—through donations, safe protest, reaching out to your lawmakers, supporting immigrant and BIPOC owned businesses, and taking care of your neighbors.
Ampersand Families believes all children deserve an opportunity to grow up in the safety and love of their parents. We are strong in our opposition to ICE’s presence in Minnesota.