Northwest Adoption Exchange Programs
We offer resources and programs that support both caseworkers and families as they prepare for and navigate the adoption journey. We also prepare and support older foster children to help them transition to adoptive homes from group care, residential care or foster care. Three such programs are:
NWAE.ORG
NWAE maintains a professional photo and profile gallery that spotlights children in the Northwest who are waiting for adoptive homes. We offer resources and helpful tips for families who are seeking to adopt, and we facilitate their inquiries on waiting children. We support the caseworkers who advocate on behalf of these children - and the caseworkers who represent families - with information and guidance. We also coordinate local media recruitment, including Saturday's Child newspaper columns and Wednesday's Child television spots.
Washington Special Recruitment
The Washington Special Recruitment Project (SRP) is a specialized program that focuses on specific waiting foster children in Washington who need extra recruitment help to find an adoptive family. SRP combines enhanced outreach with targeted search efforts in order to recruit adoptive families for these children. SRP staff personally respond to all family inquiries, follow-up with family workers, and review all home studies before forwarding them to a child's worker. We help prepare and facilitate the successful transition of children to adoption, and help prepare their adoptive families to receive them and meet their needs.
Washington Adoption Resource Exchange (WARE)
WARE features photo and profiles galleries of waiting foster children and available adoptive families in the state of Washington. A password-protected website, WARE is a partnership between the Northwest Adoption Exchange and the State of Washington Children's Administration.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Annually we are responsible for placing more than 350 foster children into permanent, loving, adoptive homes; many of them on the fringe of aging-out of their State Foster Care System, yet still in great need of care and belonging, due to both physical and emotional challenges. Our website receives over 3.5 million hits a year.
We were recently successful in advocating with the state legislature for the right for adoption recruitment services for state foster children, which the governor had targeted for elimination in recent state budget cuts. While we managed to save 50% of our funding, that also represents our current need--to replace those lost state and federal funds. We need funding to continue to do Specialized Recruitment and Family Finding for hard to place older children who have multiple special needs, and for funding to continue the Wednesday's Child Program which films video interviews of waiting foster children to be featured on our website to enhance their recruitment, and also are shown on TV stations in Washington and Idaho.