Adoption exchanges are invaluable resources whan local agencies cannot find adoptive homes for children. The term exchange in its broadest sense, involves networking, communicating and identifying the fullest range of resources available to place special needs children with permanent families. Special needs includes minority and older children, sibling groups, and those waiting children with physical, mental and/or emotional handicaps.

There is a lot of variety among exchanges throughout the United States. Some focus strictly on photo listing services; others are oriented to providing training and consultation to adoption professionals and parent groups in their state or area. Some exchanges have a broad funding base and are run by full-time staff; others are informal exchanges that hold monthly meetings of adoption workers from various agencies for the purpose of sharing children and families. In all cases, the commitment is the same: increasing the chances for the adoptive placement of waiting children, and having those placements occur as quickly as possible.

Services of a Full-Service Exchange:

Intake of children and families

Registration of children and families

Referral of families for specific children to agencies

Photo-listing of waiting children

Casefinding (identification of children in that child welfare system)

Contracting (making of agreements for services of exchanges and referring agencies)

Collection and analysis of data on exchange operations

Referral of children and families to other exchanges when adoptive placements do not occur within a specific time period

Training and technical assistance to facilitate the placement of wailing children

Recruitment of specific families for registered children through special outreach programs

Public education and Information

Advocacy and leadership In overcoming the attitudinal and systemic barriers

* SEEUS services include all of the above except for training services which we can not provide with our small staff and budget.

Next: 'SEE US' PHOTO-LISTING SUBSCRIPTION