Programs
& Services for all Families
MARE provides
many programs and services for families to get to know the
children who are waiting to be adopted.
MARE
Photolisting® and Online
Photolisting
MARE maintains a book containing biographical descriptions
and photographs of children who are registered with MARE and
available for adoption. Updated monthly, the MARE Photolisting®
is located in numerous public
libraries throughout the state, as well as in many adoption
agencies. We also have a MARE Online Photolisting on our website
that includes a partial list of children who are legally free
and photolisted with MARE.
 MARE
Online Matching
This program gives families the opportunity to search for
waiting children who are registered with MARE, including children
who are at legal risk and those who are not in the MARE Photolisting®.
Click
here to view answers to Frequently Asked Questions about
the Online Matching Program. Please note that MARE will
delete accounts in this program if correspondence is undeliverable
to the email address used.
Child-Specific
Media Campaigns
MARE coordinates numerous ongoing media campaigns featuring
specific children available for adoption. Some of the most
well known are Wednesday’s
Child with Jack Williams on WBZ-TV 4 Boston, Sunday’s
Child® in the Boston Globe and En
Busca de Hogar with Sara Suarez on Univision. For
a complete list, go to our media campaigns page.
Adoption
Parties
Four to six times per year, MARE hosts adoption parties (see
a video) to bring together social workers, waiting children
and prospective adoptive parents in casual and fun settings.
Each party is held in a different region of the state. Families
can learn more about adoption, meet waiting children and network
with social workers. Adoption Party Guides are available for
families
and social
workers. To find out about upcoming events, please go
to our events
page.
The
Heart Gallery
The Heart Gallery is a striking portrait exhibit of children
in the Massachusetts foster care system in need of permanent
families. Professional and amateur photographers volunteer
their expertise to create visual images of the children, and
the exhibit moves to different locations around the state
in addition to permanent exhibits at all Jordan’s Furniture
stores.
AdoptUsKids
AdoptUsKids is a national website of more than 3000 children
awaiting adoption and families approved to adopt. The AdoptUsKids
website allows families to search for children and for social
workers to search for families throughout the United States.
AdoptUsKids is an initiative of the Children's Bureau, which
is being operated by the Adoption Exchange Association. Anyone
can view the children on the website, but to find out more
about a particular child, including contact information for
the child's agency or social worker, you must have a current
homestudy in the state where you live and become a site member.
Programs
& Services for Homestudied Families
 If
you have completed the homestudy process and are waiting to
be matched with a child or sibling group, you can utilize
the following MARE services:
Homestudied
Family Registration and Family
Profiles
We encourage families from Massachusetts to register with
MARE immediately after their homestudy is complete. Social
workers can register
waiting families from Massachusetts who have completed
and approved homestudies to adopt from foster care. The families’
criteria will be compared with the needs of the children registered
with MARE. If a potential match is identified, MARE will forward
the family’s homestudy to the child’s social worker.
Follow-up on such referrals is at the discretion of the child’s
social worker.
All families
are encouraged to utilize MARE's Online
Photolisting and the Online
Matching Program.
Families
with completed and approved homestudies are encouraged to
partner with their social worker to create a Family
Profile that can be shared with social workers at MARE
events such as Single Parent Matching Nights and Adoption
Parties.
Single
Parent Matching Meetings
MARE hosts matching meetings for social workers and single
prospective adoptive parents with approved homestudies. At
these meetings, social workers present specific waiting children
through verbal descriptions, pictures, videos, etc. To find
out about upcoming events, please go to our events
page.
Post
Adoption Services
Families
need not wait until a major problem has occurred before asking
for assistance. There are many post adoption services available
to families in Massachusetts including support groups, financial
& medical subsidies, referrals to adoption-competent therapists,
assistance with search and more. Click
here for a listing of Massachusetts’ agencies that
provide post adoption services.
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