The Adoption Exchange

The Adoption Exchange helps create families for children waiting in foster care who need to realize what it feels like to be loved. They need caring adults in their lives who will guide and protect them as they grow to adulthood.  They must know they will always have a place to call home. We provide expertise and support before, during and after the adoption process.

The children we serve have been waiting in foster care for years, and they have some of the greatest challenges. They may be survivors of abuse and neglect and have disabilities or special needs. They often face emotional and/or behavioral challenges resulting from past trauma.  These children are usually older and belong to a minority group. Many are part of a sibling group that needs to be placed together.

All of these children are in danger of having to leave the foster care system when they turn 18 without ever being adopted, and going through life without the love and support that a family can provide.  They will be left alone, struggling to survive physically, emotionally, academically, and financially.

The children we serve are like Nikki, a young teen who endured physical abuse and then found unconditional love with her adoptive family. Speaking of her adoptive father, she confided, “My dad gave me a reason to be alive, to get up in the morning, and the most important thing, he told me that nothing I do would ever make him stop loving me just for who I am.”

The Adoption Exchange was founded in 1983 by concerned social workers and child advocates to work for safety and permanence in the lives of foster children. Initially a meeting place for caseworkers to discuss placement of children with families seeking to adopt in the Rocky Mountain region, the organization has grown to include eight member states and now impacts national trends in child welfare. To date, The Adoption Exchange has helped connect more than 7,480 children in eight member states with permanent homes. 

Children who are adopted are much better equipped to face the world that those who must leave the foster care system without being adopted.  Adopted children are:

• more likely to complete high school or equivalent
• more likely to attend college
• less likely to experience homelessness
• less likely to get arrested
• less likely to be unemployed

 

Hundreds of youth exit the foster care system each year without permanent families. This extends their ongoing dependence on social services from the government to maintain basic needs such as food and shelter. In addition to financial costs, social costs include higher rates of school failure, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, crime, and poverty.

A family is the best preventive service a child in foster care can receive to avoid a life of poverty and hardship, and to become a productive member of the community. When a child is adopted, the entire community benefits.

Your support is critical in making life-changing placements for the most vulnerable children—those waiting in foster care.