You Gotta
Believe…..
Every Child
Deserves
a Family
Research suggests that You Gotta Believe’s Finding Families Model is a very effective method of adoptive parent recruitment for older children. Our model has undergone 3 rounds of federally funded research lead by Cornell University Professor Rosemary Avery, PhD. The most recent project was a 5 year grant to place Long Island’s longest waiting children. The results of our second grant were published in Children and Youth Services Review in their October 2009 issue entitled “An Examination of Theory and Promising Practice for Achieving Permanency for Teens Before they Age out of Foster Care.” This article features You Gotta Believe’s Finding Families Model to be ‘evidence based’ and a ‘best practice’ for adoptive family recruitment.
Our most recent federal grant project in Long Island was completed in December 2010, which provides a more in depth look at the Finding Families Model. This study reveals that when a third party dedicates time and attention to a teen’s need for a family, the teen has a very high chance of getting a family. It is through the context of an individual relationship that information about important people is able to surface and meaningful outreach can be made to potential parents. This soon to be published research demonstrates that trusting relationships between Permanency Workers or mentors with children awaiting parents is the number one variable within the Finding Families Model that is an indicator for successful permanent placements.
Our Finding Families Method works like this –Research shows that the greatest likelihood of recruiting a lifetime parent for a teen is to connect, or reconnect, them with someone they already know. To do this, it is critical for a worker or Family Finding Mentor to spend consistent time with teens learning about the important people in their lives. Once identified, it’s time to reach out to those important people with a phone call.
Many times these important people have no idea about the teen’s foster care situation nor the potential for homelessness that is looming. Sometimes they are not even aware that the child is in foster care at all. When you take into account that most teens have had at least 6 foster care placements- commonly unexpected moves, it is easy to see how they lose touch with loved ones and lose hope of finding them again.
Instead of a ‘hard sell’ on adoption, our staff and volunteers are trained how to invite interested people to consider a 10 week parenting course to help figure out if a lifetime family commitment to the teen is something they are ready to do. (Click here to read an article written about the success of our latest federally funded research project)
