Adoption Professionals

Adoption Professionals

pregnant woman next to white woman

Yes, We Do Adopt!

Pact Partners with Ethical Adoption Professionals

Pact is a full-service, non-profit adoption agency, licensed by the State of California (#015202691). Our mission is to serve adopted children of color and their families. In our placement program, we work with adoption professionals across the United States and are known for our ethical, child-focused, anti-racist approach to adoption.

The idea that only white adoptive parents are available is a racist myth.

Prospective parents of color want you to know: Yes, We Do Adopt! Pact’s placement program always has qualified Black, Latino (Hispanic), Asian and multiracial families available and prepared to adopt immediately. The first choice of every prospective adoptive family we work with is to adopt a child of color; the majority of them are headed by at least one adult of color. Birth parents who work with Pact usually remain in some form of contact with the adoptive family; all of Pact’s pre-adoptive parents are hoping for a fully-disclosed ongoing open adoption.

Pact works with professionals looking for pre-adoptive parents of color to match with expectant parents.

Adoption professionals can view Pact families ready to adopt online and request access to their full profiles and home studies. Pact can work with you and your client to determine which families best meet their needs and priorities.

Adoption professionals also turn to Pact for consultations and educational webinars, conferences and in-service trainings (CEU credits available). Scroll down to learn more about how we can support your professional practice.

For more information on any of the above, please contact Pact at (510) 243-9460 or professionals@pactadopt.org.

Pact brochures available for download and distribution:

Professional Development

Pact provides cutting-edge professional development on honest, child-centered, anti-racist adoption practices.

Learn how we can help you and/or your organization learn and grow to better meet the needs of children and families.

Adoption… It’s Complicated!: training for service providers who work with expectant parents

Raising awareness for service providers

  • Does your organization provide counseling to people facing unplanned pregnancies?
  • Is adoption one of the options you discuss with them?
  • Do you feel confident about how to support pregnant people and families considering adoption? Or those whose children have already been placed into adoption or foster care?
  • Would it benefit the clients you serve if your staff deepened their knowledge of the complex topic of adoption?

The only program of its kind, Adoption… It’s Complicated! draws on both firsthand personal experiences and the latest research to help service providers discuss adoption with honesty, balance, and compassion.

Through our Adoption…It’s Complicated! program, you can bring Pact’s team of trained first/birth parent educators to deliver trainings to service providers in your organization, such as social workers, options counselors, nurses, and therapists. Your professionals learn directly from educators who have themselves placed children for adoption about how to provide appropriate and compassionate services in an empowering, respectful, and culturally sensitive manner.

Contact aic@pactadopt.org for more information or to schedule a training.

Preparing for Transracial Adoption: partner with Pact to get the support you and your clients need

Pact can help your clients find answers to the questions: Should we adopt transracially? Are we ready?

Do you work with pre-adoptive parents considering adoption across race? Has the racial reckoning happening in America motivated you to dig deeper into issues of race and racism in adoption? Is it clear to you that race matters, racism exists, and a few hours of transracial adoption education is not enough?

Pact is here to help. We can partner with you to ensure that the families you work with are digging deeper, learning more, and getting the preparation they need—the preparation their future children need them to have. Pact has been building expertise in anti-racist pre-adoption education for almost thirty years. We know race and racism are too important and too difficult to be adequately addressed via a brief “module” or hasty conversation during pre-adoption preparations. Partnering with Pact will allow you to offer your transracial adoption clients meaningful, in-depth training that will truly prepare them for the complexities and challenges of navigating race, family, and adoption. They will thank you, and their children will thank you.

Combine these options to meet the needs of your practice and your clients. Our goal is to help prospective adopters assess and improve their own readiness, recognizing that transracial adoption isn’t appropriate for everyone.

Should We Adopt Transracially?

Pact’s signature preparation program for white adopters considering an adoption across race. Your clients will participate in individualized training sessions with experienced Pact counselors. Pact believes that when transracial adoption happens, parents must be prepared to examine their own racial identities and biases and commit to their child’s need to build a positive racial identity of their own. We don’t subscribe to the “colorblind” or “love is enough” approach; we know race matters and that parents who are adopting across racial lines must commit to making changes in their own lives in order to support their children. We work with pre-adopters to create a plan for how to examine and challenge their own white privilege, racial biases, become an anti-racist individual/family, bring more diversity into their personal and community circles, nurture a positive racial identity in a child of color, and work to recognize the racism their child will face. Includes 4 hours of personalized consultation time with Pact staff, as well as exercises, homework and access to 3 webinars. Fee is $500/ family.

Webinars Package

Offer your clients access to a series of webinars that will deepen their understanding of transracial adoption. Each session is 1.5 hours. Topics may include:

  • How Do We Prepare to Adopt Transracially?
  • Dear White People: Anti-Racist Adoptive Parenting
  • Adoptee Voices: Transracial Adoption Panel

Fee is $156/family for webinars and one-year Pact family membership, or $108/family non-member rate.

Professional-to-Professional Support

After your clients have participated in Should We Adopt Transracially? and/or the webinar package, we can provide specially-designed materials that will help you assess client readiness for transracial adoption and/or identify areas in which further education or counseling is needed. Pact staff will be available to consult with placement staff on issues and questions related to transracial adoption for up to 5 hours over the course of a year. Fee is $400 per participating agency or individual professional.

For more information about partnering with Pact to enhance your work with transracial adoptive parents, please contact education@pactadopt.org.

Below the Surface: a learning tool for prospective transracial adopters

“Below the Surface” is a self-assessment guide developed by Pact for adoptive families considering adoption across racial or cultural lines. This learning tool helps pre-adoptive parents decide for themselves if transracial adoption is the right choice for their family. It is designed to give parents feedback as to how challenging this form of parenting is likely to be for them depending on their personality, lifestyle, attitude about race and knowledge of races other than their own. Professionals find this tool invaluable. Discounted price for bulk orders. Purchase here.

Webinars and Conferences: CEUs available for your ongoing professional development

Education is at the heart of Pact’s mission, because educated individuals change lives and change the world. Visit our Events page to see our upcoming webinars and conferences about adoption, race, identity and family—there’s always more to learn! CEU available.

Bring Pact to You: Arrange presentations, workshops, or consultations for your organization

Pact can come to you with customized presentations, workshops, or consultations about adoption, race, and family that meet the needs of your organization. Available speakers include adult adoptees of color, first/birth parents, adoptive parents of color, and nationally recognized thought leader Beth Hall.

Please contact education@pactadopt.org for more information.