The Adoption Exchange provides the connection between children
who wait and families who adopt.

Vision

The Adoption Exchange envisions a world in which all children are valued and grow up in safe and permanent families, and where families are supported in their critical roles.

Introduction

The Adoption Exchange is a non-profit 501(c)(3) child welfare organization founded in 1983 to work for safety and permanence in the lives of foster children. Initially an exchange point for caseworkers to discuss placement of children with families seeking to adopt in the Rocky Mountain region, the organization has grown considerably over the years and now impacts national trends in child welfare, employs over fifty paid staff and counts on scores of volunteers to carry out its mission.

Headquartered in Colorado, The Adoption Exchange offices now operate in Missouri, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming are also participating member states, and The Adoption Exchange's National Education Center has established a national presence.

What We Do

The Adoption Exchange recruits families for children who have survived abuse and neglect, supports adoptive families throughout every phase of the adoption process, and trains child welfare professionals. The Adoption Exchange maintains a national training presence, and connects children in eight member states CO, MO, NV, NM, OK, SD, UT and WY with American families living here and abroad.

Who We Serve

Currently, more than 129,000 children in the United States are waiting for adoptive parents to release them from the uncertain future of living in foster care (AFCARS 2006). The Adoption Exchange serves waiting children, current and prospective adoptive families, and child welfare professionals.

The children are survivors of traumatic abuse, neglect and abandonment. Many face barriers because they are school-aged, members of sibling groups who don’t want to be separated, are coping with physical disabilities and struggling with emotional challenges as the result of their painful pasts. They are our nation's waiting children. And what they all want, more than anything, is a family to love them.

Since 1983, we have connected over 5,500 waiting children with permanent adoptive homes. Of the 1,317 children served ;in Fiscal Year 2007-2008,

♥ 81.7% were over 8 years old
♥ 49.3% were sibling groups of two or more
♥ 55.6% were of minority heritage
♥ 40.5% were female and 59.5% were male

According to Children in Foster Homes: How Are They Fairing? (December 2003):

• Children in foster care are four times as likely to have a clinical level of behavioral or emotional problems compared to other children.
• School-age children in foster care are more than twice as likely as other children to be poorly engaged in school.
• The mean length of stay for a child to wait in foster care for a permanent family is 29 months,one-half years. (AFCARS, 2006)
• If they “emancipate” from the state’s care at eighteen instead of being adopted by a loving family, these children are more likely to succumb to substance abuse, crime and poverty.  Waiting children deserve better.

Expenses to the Community

Waiting for a permanent home is not only hard on children; it is also expensive to the community.  It costs taxpayers $20,000 per child for every year in the state’s care (ACLU, 2004), which does not include the potential cost of correctional services, subsidized housing, welfare, incarceration or other social services that are statistically more likely when children grow up dependent on the state.  In addition to financial costs, social costs include significantly higher rates of school failure, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, crime and poverty.  Every year, over 19,000 children nationwide emancipate from states’ care, without ever having found their permanent homes (AFCARS, 2006).

Accomplishments

♥ Since 1983, The Adoption Exchange has found families for more than 5,500 children.

♥ In our 2007-2008 fiscal year, we served 1,317 waiting children,;339 of these children were placed in loving adoptive homes.

♥ We averaged almost one adoption placement per day, and 20 were age 16 or older.

We are so grateful to the friends, supporters and volunteers who made this possible, and are excited to report to them the following additional accomplishments of this past year:

♥ THE CHILDREN’S GALLERY: The Adoption Exchange Web site profiled 1,080 children in our searchable database of children waiting in foster care for adoptive families. 47 children had video stream profiles.

♥ Our Web site had an average of 84,797 unique visitors per month, representing an average of 1,020 visit per day!

♥ ADOPTION NETWORKING and PROFILE PARTIES: 340 children and 717 prospective and adoptive parents attended 16 parties in four states.

♥ ADOPTION INQUIRIES: We served 7,912 families and responded to more than 25,000 of their inquiries and requests for advocacy or information.

♥ EDUCATION CENTER ACTIVITIES: 2,079 adoption professionals, administrators, adoptive families and members of the general public participated in training and adoption consultation events in 25 states. The Education Center of The Adoption Exchange serves all fifty states and U.S. tribes and territories.

♥ VOLUNTEERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE: More than 1,000 volunteers contributed more than 8,000 hours in program services, administrative support and fundraising efforts - time and energy equal to almost four full time employees.

♥ WEEKLY WAITING CHILD EMAILS: 4,399 prospective adoptive families across the United States received regular updates by email about our waiting children.


Click here to view our Publications
(Annual Report, Newsletter and various other publications)