{"id":9785,"date":"2014-04-23T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=9785"},"modified":"2020-12-23T23:52:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T07:52:19","slug":"creating-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/creating-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Family"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MARE\u2019s
MARE\u2019s Heart Gallery display of portraits of children awaiting adoption.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc.\u00a0 (MARE), family isn’t always a group of people united by genes. Family is a matter of commitment, will, and compassion.<\/p>\n

Children enter state foster care on a temporary basis so that the problem in the their birth families (usually neglect or violence) can be investigated and resolved. Foster parents sign up to provide safe, loving temporary care. They often do not know if it will be a few days or a few months until the children can leave foster care and be reunited with their birth families.<\/p>\n

Janice Halpern, Director of Public Relations and Fundraising <\/b>at MARE, explains that it doesn’t always work that way: \u201cMost people sign up to provide temporary care for those who need temporary care. For some children, it becomes clear that the problems in the birth families cannot be fixed in time for the children to have a childhood there, so the children\u2019s goal changes to adoption. 25 percent of kids in foster care have the goal of adoption.\u201d These children need \u201cforever families.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many foster parents do adopt the children they have fostered, many more are not able to make that life-long commitment.\u00a0MARE connects children in state foster care who are in need of adoption with\u00a0adults looking to adopt.<\/p>\n

The organization educates the public about adoption from foster care and recruits potential parents for more than 750 waiting children each year. \u00a0Interested adults work closely with social workers to create a Home Study report, which serves as a profile that case workers use to tentatively match children with a forever family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Home Study interviews and training are a way to help the family figure out what characteristics of a child they feel they would be a good match,\u201d says Janice. \u201cThere are children in foster care with the goal of adoption who have medical issues, for example. Their feeding is done through a GI tube and there are adoptive parents who are nurses or have medical experience and those GI tubes are easy-peasy for them. But for parents who pass out at the sight of blood, that wouldn\u2019t be a good match. That\u2019s part of the work that families do with their social worker to determine the characteristics of a child that they\u2019d be a great match for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children
Children and prospective adoptive parents play at a MARE Adoption Party. Credit: Brian Sullivan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once a potential match is made, adoptive parents and\u00a0some waiting\u00a0children then have the opportunity to meet at MARE\u2019s Adoption Parties. These events focus around fun activities like ice skating, horseback riding, and carnival games where adults and kids can play and get to know one another in a nonthreatening environment. Adoption Parties are MARE\u2019s single most effective tool in matching children with families, accounting for 26% of the 178 children placed with pre-adoptive parents last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the exception of events like Adoption Parties, a lot of the matching happens behind the scenes. But the children have a say. They deserve a say, just as the family deserves a say in what child would join their family,\u201d says Janice. Creating a family is a delicate process that the team at MARE supports with care, patience, and positive energy.<\/p>\n

MARE could not help create successful families without the support of everyday people. As a private non-profit charitable organization, MARE receives less than half of its funding from the state, even though all the children MARE serves are wards of the state. The remaining balance comes from the support of foundations, individuals, and businesses like Yardi<\/a>. \u201cIn a way, Yardi and MARE make such a great team,\u201d Janice says. \u201cWe try to find great homes for kids and Yardi helps to provide great homes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Individual supporters are encouraged to spread the word about MARE\u2019s services. Those who are considering adoption are invited to learn more. To make a difference in the lives of one of the 100,000 kids \u00a0nationwide who are waiting for adoption, visit MARE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc.\u00a0 (MARE), family isn’t always a group of people united by genes. Family is a matter of commitment, will, and compassion. Children enter state foster care on a temporary basis so that the problem in the their birth families (usually neglect or violence) can be investigated and resolved. Foster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":440,"featured_media":9856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1717,5,3354],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-9785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giving","category-people","category-team-yardi","tag-yardi-corporate-philanthropy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc.\u00a0 (MARE), family isn't always a group of people united by genes. 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