This news report by Global News has been shared across Facebook this week.
The report is about how Alberta has a website that is accessible to the general public and profiles the harder to place children in an effort to attract the right families.
This has been a successful website for the last 12 years (!) in Alberta and has resulted in many of the children profiled being placed, or many new applications from potential parents being matched with other children waiting for homes. The report states that Alberta has also been profiling a child each week on TV in their Wednesday’s Child program for the past 32 years!
The BC Ministry for Child and Family Development (MCFD) is currently considering a similar program for the more than 1,000 BC children waiting for permanent placements.
As an approved adoptive parent I am pretty passionate about this subject. I feel strongly that approved parents should be able to search a database of profiles to find the children with whom they would like to become a family. And this is not currently available to us.
Not to suggest taking away from the current role of the Social Workers (SW), just to enable the parents to become their own driving force in addition to the service that the SW are currently providing.
“Many hands make light work,” and all.
Being self-sufficient in every area of my life, I find that giving up the reins on something so incredibly personal and important as creating a family seems completely counterintuitive. (I know I’ve said that before…)
The MCFD posts profiles of children on their website under the Adoption Bulletin. Approximately 60 of the 1000+ profiles are shown at a time, with a brief summary of information (no photos or video) and no real names are used. However, this site is only updated about once every 2-3 months.
Because it is updated so infrequently, it also means that many of the children profiled have already been placed or are in the process of being placed. Which is wonderful for the kids, and a clear indication that the site works.
Why is it out of date, and why only 60 profiles at a time?
Resources and funding are really inexcusable reasons, when we are talking about children finding a home to call their own.
How could we change this system? (My thoughts on reform…)
Open up a database to approved families, and include ALL children that are currently waiting for adoption. Update this database weekly so that the information is current.
Give approved families a username and password, for increased security.
The database should include: name (pseudonyms), brief history of the child, a little about them, photos, and a video if available.
If the family finds a profile that speaks to them and they want more information, have a button that they can click to notify their SW of the profile in question. They’ve logged in with a username and password so it could absolutely connect direct to their own SW email. Or have them be able to save favourites that their SW can also access to see which children the approved families are interested in pursuing.
Take the pressure off the overworked SW who are sporting huge caseloads of parents, and allow the parents themselves to decide which profiles are a good fit for their family.
When I mention this idea to different people, I often get the response that the greatest concern is the privacy of the child. And while I understand the importance of protecting the rights and privacy of the children in question, I feel that these concerns are mostly about a website aimed at the general public, not an internal site available by password only to approved adoptive parents.
Keep the access “in house”, with an online database that is secured by username and password (even a unique username generated by the MCFD if need be) and make it available to approved adoptive parents.
Or if security needs to be tighter even still, how about allowing approved parents to book a time to come into one of the MCFD offices and use a computer set up specifically for this purpose. Giving them access to a database where usage could be monitored and logged.
Approved parents have already been through a year (or more) of interviews, courses, criminal background checks, questionnaires, a rigorous home study, and sometimes even therapy… these are people who have been through the process, and have been approved to adopt the children that are waiting for a family.
They are not some unknown stranger off the street; they have put the time, energy, and their hearts and souls into becoming parents through adoption.
The only thing standing in their way is the slow-going matching part of the process, their hands are tied by the waiting game.
Let them not feel idle.
Give them access.
The MCFD has already approved them… approved ‘us’.
Please.
Give us access.
When searching for children with the kind of parameters I have (that are very broad) the result of the search I’m told could be 100’s of children meeting that criteria within the MCFD’s internal database – used only by social workers. Each of these returned matches within the database is the beginning of a web of information that is not clearly outlined in one place, and that makes the search results very time consuming. Unfortunately, many SW are time-restricted by their caseloads and hours in a day.
I have time.
I have time.
And, most importantly, I want to sit and go through those matches.
I’d like to sit and go through every profile of every one of the 1000+ children that are currently available – both within my set “parameters” and without.
Because I don’t know which child is going to feel right to me, I don’t know which child will be the right fit for me, and because of that I’m pretty open to the possibilities. Maybe it is a teen or a tween who grabs my attention and my heart. Maybe it is an infant with needs that I hadn’t considered. Maybe it’s a sibling group of two or more children with a wide age split. It could be any one (or two) of the children currently waiting.
Let the prospective parents fall in love with a profile and follow through that way. Let approved parents have access to search for their own children.
I am approved; I’ve been through the process. I want to search through the profiles and find the right match. I want to do that.
An “open to the public” resource site similar to the one available in Alberta, as discussed in the Global report, would be a wonderful thing for BC’s waiting children in attracting parents who may not have already considered adoption.
I also feel that any resources and funding should first be filtered into creating a database for approved parents to have access, so as to perhaps speed up the matching process for those families ready and waiting to adopt right now.
For the sake of the children waiting for a family and the parents waiting for a child I hope that this is the start of Adoption Reform in BC, and greater access for approved parents to get involved in the creation of their family.
Please give us access…
What do you think about the idea of a database for approved parents secured with a username and password…?
Warm smiles and Love,
Ali Jayne
xo
This sounds like a GREAT idea to me. I have several friends who have adopted, and I remember talking to one friend about the process and how they were presented with several different prospective adoptive children before they found one whom they felt fit with their family. I agree with you that SOMETHING needs to be done to help more children get placed sooner. Thanks for sharing!!! And blessings to you in your journey. 🙂 (P.S. I’ve shared one of my friend’s stories on my blog, if you search “adoption”.)
Bonnie Way recently posted…Snowdrift by Lisa McGonigle
Thanks Bonnie 🙂
I feel it’s a great idea too… I’d even be willing to run and maintain it (for a full-time job fee of course!).
You are right though, my social worker does bring me prospective adoptive children that she finds by searching the internal database or through word of mouth from other SW’s.
I did just check out and read the post on your site. So beautiful to read a positive adoption story! So happy for that family 🙂
I also see that you are the “Koala Bear Writer” but that you are from Canada… how did that come about? (I am from Australia originally…)
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Hi there, great post. I think it is a great idea. My only concern would be the picture of the child. I could see a picture being added once you express interest in that specific child, but while it would only be open to approved, waiting families that is still a lot of people. I found that when I was shown a picture of a child really early on in the process, it really threw me. I was actually really concerned about the boys privacy. It so happened he lived far from me, but I always wondered that if I had been from a nearby community or the same community as him or if I traveled to or through his community that it would be possible for me to see him…and that would be a huge breach of confidentiality. This particular child was black and in a small town, so he would have stuck out a bit. If I happened to spend any time in or near his community, it would have been likely I would have known him or seen him. Perhaps there could be an extra layer to approval for photo and video sharing? As long as the extra layer of approval isn’t too cumbersome as to slow the process too much. As a waiting parent I would have looked at every photo and video of every child even if they didn’t match what I knew would work in my family…out of obsession to do with adoption…so create an extra layer so photos and videos are still easy to gain access to, but not for every late night, desperately waiting approved family. Does that make sense?
Hi Sara,
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, I definitely appreciate these discussions and hearing other points of view on this subject.
You make some really great points, and you are right… I too would probably look at all the profiles even if they were not a match for me, for that very reason you have mentioned – the late night, desperately waiting approved family. In fact, I periodically check the national Canadian site, the Alberta site, and the US site, all of which have photos and some videos – so that I can feel that I’m actively “doing” something in this waiting stage. I often find kids on those sites that I wish I could click a button for more information for…but they are not here, in BC.
I will also admit that I don’t look at profiles without photos.
I connect with life visually. And a child that I might not have considered on paper alone, I might consider if I can see a photo and have the opportunity to feel an emotional response to the child.
In the US and the UK they go one step further than just the open to the public website with photos, they also hold adoption matching events where the children are actually present, and the parents get to meet and interact with them. In the US these are social gatherings and the parents work the games stations and food stations etc… so that the kids are not totally under a microscope. In the UK, at least on the show I watched, it’s more open with the kids about what the event is for and why they are there.
I definitely understand wanting to protect the children, absolutely, I just think BC is a little behind the times on this point, especially when it is working well in other provinces, with no advertised security breaches, and in other countries – and these sites are open to the general public.
The fact is, the BC Government – according to the Global & CBC reports – is already considering opening a database with photos up to the general public. I’m saying let’s take that funding and that idea and close it down one step further by making it only available to approved adoptive parents.
The way things are now, the kids waiting for adoption and the parents approved and likely a great match for them – could all sit and wait in limbo for years before that match is made… and that is a crying shame. Giving eager parents another resource might just help speed the process along…
Thanks again… I really do appreciate your thoughts and the opportunity to consider them.
Ali J
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Hi Ali,
I read this article through the October e-news, and wished they had a poll and/or reply button right there to facilitate the discussion. I wanted a massive YES button, personally.
I’m not yet through all the police check and other hurdles, but I have been looking at profiles (in Ontario where I lived, and the endless US databases) for YEARS to try and get my head around if this was indeed the journey I wanted to take.
I’ve read your most recent post (“Profiles to Consider”), and like you, I am a sponge for information; just a few lines is not enough. I want to feel like I’m in the drivers seat. I want to trawl through the thousands of available children, and consider how my life might be shaped differently if I’m drawn to a child(ren) outside of my original “search criteria”. I’m 100% okay that I can only see the photos once I’m fully approved, and just have the short, out-of-date blurbs in the meantime. I cannot see how anyone external to my (quirky) family can know who is a best match for us, or us for them!
Anyway, I’m just writing an emphatic YES from a different point along the journey. I really hope your article inspires change. And I wish you the best on your stage of the journey,
Thank you Vanessa for your comments!
I’m so glad to know there are others out there, who want more information, want to wade through the pages of profiles, want to be driving the bus!! I hope that all of these discussions inspire change! Not only for those of us who feel frustrated sitting on our hands, but for the kids waiting too… anything to speed up the process and minimise the wait for all involved would be a huge blessing! Fingers crossed!
Completely agree with you – who knows us better than we know ourselves? And who knows what or who we will be drawn to unless we can get in there and submerge ourselves in the information. I still check the AB & US sites every few weeks and sometimes I find a profile that makes me wish I could put my name forward – frustrating, and hope-giving!
I’m so glad you were able to connect through the October e-news 🙂 Are you in BC now?
Good luck with the rest of the process, I hope you are at the approval stage soon and have many profiles to consider. Please come back and let me know how you’re progressing.
Ali J 🙂