MASSACHUSETTS ADOPTION RESOURCE EXCHANGE INC
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Mission Statement
The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc. (MARE) finds permanent adoptive homes for children and teens waiting in foster care. MARE’s programs aim to serve the populations of youth that face the biggest barriers to permanency; teens, children of color, sibling groups, LGBTQ+ youth, and those with complex medical or developmental needs.
About This Cause
Currently, there are 8,100 children in the foster care system in Massachusetts. These children have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect and to prevent future harm. Some will be reunited with their birth parents; others will be adopted by family members or close friends. Many have nowhere to go. As of the start of this fiscal year over 1,100 kids in Massachusetts foster care have a goal of adoption, but no family member or identified resource has come forward to offer permanency. These are the children and teens MARE serves. MARE has a strong history of success in changing the trajectory of the lives of at-risk children waiting in foster care. In the past 65 years, we have found permanency for 7,400 foster children, who would have otherwise exited foster care without family. MARE has a reputation for meeting challenges head-on and finding creative and innovative solutions. No other organization in Massachusetts does what MARE does. MARE, a private non-profit agency, was founded in 1957 and provides a unique facilitating role within the Massachusetts adoption community. We collaborate with the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families (DCF) and contracted adoption agencies to connect potential adoptive parents with foster youth waiting for adoption. MARE is the bridge between children in the custody of DCF, also known as foster care, and families interested in adoption. MARE develops public awareness and recruitment programs to invite the public into the process of adoption, inform them about the children and teens who wait, and support them in navigating the adoption process. MARE’s programs also serve to recruit adoptive families for specific waiting children through targeted outreach. All of MARE's services are designed to bridge the gap for kids in foster care to safe, permanent families. MARE takes a 2-pronged approach to making permanency a reality for children in foster care. Child Services engages in child-specific recruitment, finding an adoptive family to match a particular child’s needs. Family Support Services advises families interested in adoption and provides assistance to those going through the process. MARE’s model uses these complementary programs to cast as wide a net as possible to find potential adoptive families and then match them with a specific child whose needs they meet. CHILD SERVICES Children are registered for recruitment with MARE by their adoption worker from DCF or one of its 10 contracted agencies. Each waiting child is assigned to one of MARE’s Child Services Coordinators (CSCs) based upon geographic region. The CSC crafts an individualized recruitment plan to find a permanent family for the child utilizing an array of tools including multimedia profiles, media campaigns, events, and targeted community outreach. The CSC also responds to inquiries from interested families resulting from these efforts. CSCs review home studies of families and forward recommendations to the child’s adoption worker, who makes final decisions. Below are some examples of tools used in child-specific recruitment: - Adoption Meet & Greets/ Matching Events: An adoption Meet & Greet is an interactive event that brings together waiting children, their social workers, and prospective adoptive families in a low pressure recreational atmosphere. Adoption Meet & Greets are our most successful recruitment tool and occur on a monthly basis both virtually and in-person. MARE also hosts matching nights where prospective families can have in-depth conversations with social workers about waiting children on their caseloads. - MARE Web Services: Prospective adoptive families are able to register with MARE and then use our website to view photos, profiles, and videos of waiting children from all over the state. Families can also search to find and inquire about children for whom they may be a good match. - Cultural and Community Outreach: Children that have a tie to a specific community or group are promoted within that community to allow the child consistency and familiarity. MARE strives to be an innovative leader in addressing the overrepresentation of black and brown children in foster care through partnership with civic leaders, faith based organizations, and non-profit partners. FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES Families come to MARE by inquiring about adoption or about a specific child for whom MARE is recruiting. Once families are licensed, MARE registers their homestudy for consideration by CSCs who are recruiting families for specific children. Throughout the process and even after a family has a child placed in their home, Family Support Services provides guidance and support through trainings, mentorship, and advocacy. MARE’s long-term goal is to find a nurturing forever family for every child in state foster care who cannot be raised by his or her birth family. Our goal is to find youth permanent families so that they have the support system they need to live safely and to become their best selves. We believe no child should leave the foster care system without permanent connections, support, and stability. Over the course of FY23, our strategic plan goals specifically seek to expand recruitment, retention, and matching of prospective adoptive parents with children awaiting adoption by: - Increasing the number of families who begin the process of adoption, and diversifying the racial and ethnic make-up of families recruited to better reflect the populations of waiting youth - Facilitating the placement of children of color with parents who are advocates for the child’s positive racial and cultural identity and who will provide ongoing opportunities for the children to experience and maintain their connection to their own culture - Implement targeted public awareness and engagement strategies aimed at families positioned to parent the populations of youth who wait the longest - Providing support and training to families throughout the process, including training on topics such as trauma-informed parenting, transracial adoption, and adoptive family dynamics - Building a multi-media Learning Management System to provide video content and resources to support families towards successful adoptions - Ensure strong relationships with DCF and contract agency staff to ensure that the impact of workforce crisis and high turnover at the state agency does not impact permanency for the youth MARE serves - Improving the ways we engage youth to have a voice in their own permanency planning, as well as incorporating those with lived experience in informing the agency’s work - Expanding services to meet the needs of young adults ages 18-22 who continue to express a desire for permanency as they enter into adulthood - Building a staff and Board which reflects meaningful representation of the diverse communities with whom we work and serve. Permanency – a lifelong familial connection – is the key to offering a brighter future to youth in foster care. Permanency means having positive, healthy, nurturing relationships with adults who provide emotional, financial, moral, educational, and other kinds of support as youth mature into adults. From a developmental perspective, stability and security are key requisites for recovery from past adversities and well-being among foster youth. Older youth, regardless of age, need and deserve to be connected to a permanent family and support system that both lifts them up and cushions them if they fall. MARE helps make this possible by providing children with opportunities to come to the attention of potential adoptive parents in positive and creative ways; and recruiting, supporting, and advocating for families to advance them toward successful adoptions. MARE currently has over 600 children in our caseload. During our most recently completed fiscal year (2022), MARE placed 168 children in permanent adoptive homes. MARE also served 2,937 families by providing information, referral, support and training.