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The Faith-Based and Community Initiative skip to primary page content Empowering America's Grassroots

Adoption Opportunities Program

Purposes

The Adoption Opportunities program provides discretionary funds for projects designed to eliminate barriers to adoption and help find permanent families for children who would benefit from adoption, particularly children with special needs.
Some of the major program areas, as mandated by the legislation, are the following:

  • The development and implementation of a national adoption information exchange system;
  • Increasing services in support of the placement in adoptive families of minority children who are in foster care and have the goal of adoption, with a special emphasis on the recruitment of minority families; and
  • Increasing post-legal adoption services for families who have adopted children with special needs; and
  • Supporting the placement of children in kinship care arrangements, pre-adoptive, or adoptive homes.

How Funds May Be Used

Grantees of this program develop collaboration strategies and models to increase the number of adoptions within the child welfare system and to provide innovative services and tests of new service delivery models to strengthen families who have adopted children. Funded projects have assisted with child welfare services' efforts to achieve permanency for children in the foster care system and have focused on assisting States to improve their ability to meet the needs of the rising numbers of children waiting for permanent families.

Eligibility

Grants are awarded through a competitive process to eligible entities, which may include States, local government entities, federally recognized Indian Tribes and tribal organizations, faith-based and community organizations, colleges and universities, public or private non-profit licensed child welfare or adoption agencies, and adoption exchanges.

Sponsoring Bureau: Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children’s Bureau

Fiscal Year 2005 Grants: Information about funding levels and grant competitions in Fiscal Year 2005 is expected be available in spring 2005.

An excellent way to learn more about this program is to read the Fiscal Year 2004 program announcements: www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/HHS-2004-ACF-ACYF-CO-0019.html (field-initiated research) and www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/HHS-2004-ACF-ACYF-CO-0021.html (demonstration announcement)

Anticipated number of FY 2005 awards: Up to 6

Anticipated size of each award: $300,000

Project period: 60 months with five 12-month budget periods

Contact

Geneva Ware-Rice

Phone: 202-205-8354