Finding New Families for Older Children

To support a program in six North Carolina counties that gives children an active role in selecting potential adoptive parents, The Duke Endowment committed $1.4 million from 2006-2010.

Challenge

North Carolina typically has some 10,000 children in foster care. For roughly 3,000, of them, returning to their families is not possible. Instead, adoption is the goal. Older children and those in sibling groups are typically harder to place in adoptive homes than infants and younger children. Some older children have been in the child welfare system for years.

Historically, the adoption process in the child welfare system focused on identifying potential adoptive parents, without incorporating the child's voice into the selection process.

Response

To help North Carolina's older children and sibling groups have a say in the adoption process — and find the kinds of adoptive families they seek — the Children's Home Society of North Carolina uses "child-centered recruitment." Through this process, the Society's child-specific recruiters work with small case loads to spend more time with each child to help them:

• understand why and how they came to be in state custody
• consider and define the type of adoptive family they desire
• make connections with potential families who meet the child's criteria

Children Participate in Adoption Process

Children in the child-centered recruitment program become active participants in the process. They work with their adoption specialist to create their own recruitment plan, develop an online "Adoption Chronicle" interview for potential adoptive families to view, create a "Life Book" (a record of the child's life, thoughts and feelings), and take advantage of other pre- and post-adoption services. Children also are given the opportunity to attend events with their adoption recruiter where they can meet and interact with waiting families face-to-face and experience activities they might not have the opportunity to do otherwise (waterskiing, indoor rock climbing or swimming in the ocean).

The Children's Home Society of North Carolina currently provides child-centered recruitment through its own private adoption service, and through Department of Social Services offices in six counties: Burke, Cumberland, Durham, Harnett, McDowell and Wake.

Participating Sites in North Carolina

• Children's Home Society of North Carolina
• Burke County Department of Social Services
• Cumberland County Department of Social Services
• Durham County Department of Social Services
• Harnett County Department of Social Services
• McDowell County Department of Social Services
• Wake County Department of Social Services

Contact Us

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Vice President
704.969.2140