Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc. (MARE)
Family & Youth Alliance Proposal Narrative 04/04/2012
Funding Request:
The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) requests a $5,000 grant towards our Child Services
Program to find life-long, loving adoptive families for children in Massachusetts foster care.
MISSION:
MARE finds permanent adoptive families for youth in state foster care, including sibling groups and others who are
traditionally harder to place. We do this by recruiting, educating, supporting and advocating for families throughout the
adoption process while targeting recruitment efforts to attract potential parents for specific waiting children. Our goal is to
find a nurturing life-long family for every child in state foster care who cannot be raised by his or her birth family.
HISTORY:
The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) was founded in 1957 to bridge the gap between adoptable
children in state foster care and families looking to private agencies for adoption. So far, MARE has:
a. helped more than 5,750 children leave state foster care for adoptive families.
b. saved the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the high cost of maintaining those children in state foster care
(minimum of $8,000 per year per child).
c. saved our communities and these youth the high emotional and financial costs of allowing them to “age out” of
state care to fend for themselves in our neighborhoods, at high risk for homelessness, drugs, violence, and early
pregnancy.
MARE has a long history of innovation and success. Some of MARE’s developments include:
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In the 1960’s: MARE created the nation’s first pictorial profile of children awaiting adoption. This newsletter
became the MARE Photolisting® book, registered with the Library of Congress, and became the primary means by
which prospective parents learned about specific children.
In the 1970’s: MARE collaborated with the Boston Globe to create “Sunday’s Child,” transforming the public’s
perception of children who need adoption.
In the 1980’s: MARE collaborated with adoptive families to develop the Adoption Party, a fun, activity-filled event
designed to give waiting children a chance to interact with prospective parents in a low-key atmosphere.
In 1981: MARE launched Wednesday’s Child with WBZ-TV’s Jack Williams, the longest running adoptive parent
recruitment feature in the nation.
In 2005: MARE launched the Massachusetts Heart Gallery photographic exhibit, bringing portraits of children in
need of adoption to public locations.
LEADERSHIP:
MARE is led by Executive Director, Lisa Funaro, LICSW. Ms. Funaro has over 25 years experience in the adoption field,
and began her career as an intern and on staff at MARE in the 1980s. Before returning to MARE as Executive Director in
2006, she served as executive director of the Ocean State Adoption Resource Exchange, now Adoption Rhode Island. She
was also director of adoption for Cambridge Family & Children’s Services and directed adoption programs for Act of Love
Adoptions and Boston Children’s Services. She has been a resource for adoption professionals worldwide. In the past year
alone, child welfare professionals from England, Australia, Florida, Maine, and Romania have sought out Ms. Funaro for
guidance on our effective tools and systems for improving outcomes and permanency for youth in state care.
FINANCES:
Our operations are budgeted at $1,136,784 in FY 2012, with the goal of raising $395,000 in foundation grants; of that,
$308,300 has already been paid or pledged, leaving $86,700 still be to raised.
MARE has no endowment, and receives less than half of our funding from our contract with the Massachusetts Department
of Children and Families (DCF). We expect an additional 5% from our Car Donation Program, which raised 10% of our
budget before the recession began in 2008. Some of our other programs are fully funded by restricted grants, leaving 36%
of our budget to be raised from additional grants, donations and events.
How wise an investment is MARE? Last year, we spent roughly $1,500 on services for each of the 748 children on our
caseload. At the same time, the Commonwealth spent roughly $8,000 on the costs of supporting one child in foster care for
one year (and $70,000 for one year of specialized residential care). The average age of a child adopted through MARE’s
efforts is eight-years-old. Without our work to find adoptive families for them, they’d likely spend ten more years in foster
care until they age out at 18, costing the state a minimum of $80,000 to meet each child’s basic needs during that additional
Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc. (MARE)
Family & Youth Alliance Proposal Narrative 04/04/2012
decade of care. Without MARE’s work, the 152 children we helped leave foster care last year would risk ten more years in
state care – at a cost to taxpayers of $12,160,000.
New children enter our caseload every week. And the cost of not finding adoptive families for these youth, of allowing
hundreds of local young adults to age out of foster care every year is exorbitant. Given the high rates of poverty,
homelessness, teen pregnancy, underemployment, and health problems among these mostly minority youth who age out,
these are costs that our communities may bear for the lifetime of each “aged-out” adult. Investing in preventing one
youngster from aging out of foster care pays dividends to our communities for decades.
NEED SERVED:
The 487 special needs children MARE currently serves are the most difficult to place. They are predominantly: older - 81%
are ages 6-18; 65% are minority populations; 60% are boys; 90% have physical, intellectual, and/or emotional special
needs; many are in sibling groups; 100% are economically disadvantaged wards of the state.
Each year, hundreds of Massachusetts teens “age out” of foster care at age 18 to “independent living.” Already burdened by
their experiences of abuse, neglect, and instability, these high risk young people leave the foster care system without the
maturity or ongoing guidance to help them become productive and connected members of society.
A 2008 Boston Foundation report* found that, of young adults who aged out of state foster care:
• 43% had been pregnant or had gotten someone pregnant
• 54% were unemployed
• 37% experienced homelessness
• 25% had been arrested; 8% had been incarcerated
* Preparing Our Kids for Education, Work and Life: A Report of the Task Force on Youth Aging Out of DSS Care, June 2008
However, MARE's work to find permanent adoptive homes for these high-risk youth in foster care can break the cycles of
abuse and neglect that put children into foster care in the first place.
For the individual child, the benefits of adoption are priceless – we move children from turmoil to stability, from the state
child welfare system to a loving, life-long family system. Children struggle with the instability of foster care, and often
have to move to a new home, new school, new family or institution. Some children move 20 or more times while waiting
for a family to want them. How can a child facing that upheaval thrive in traditional after-school (or in-school) enrichment
programs while their most basic need for security and dependability remains unmet? Giving these youth the stability of
permanent homes and life-long family support builds the very foundation for education and skill-building. For the
communities, adoption reduces the need for long-term services to successive generations of these abused and neglected
children. In the hierarchy of needs, “home” and “family” must come first.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
MARE’s labor-intensive work is focused around our Child Services Program, designed to continually “put a face on”
waiting children to both educate the public about adoption from foster care and to recruit potential parents for specific
children. Under the management of Executive Director Lisa Funaro and Director of Child & Family Services, Bridget
Chiaruttini, we work to:
1. DEVELOP a PROFILE of each local youth in need of adoption,
2. DESIGN a targeted plan to recruit potential parents for each waiting child,
3. EDUCATE prospective families about the adoption process, supports and benefits,
4. INFORM adults about specific waiting children and the general need for adoptive families,
5. TRACK & SUPPORT prospective families throughout the adoption process,
6. MATCH prospective parents with specific children awaiting adoption,
7. MOVE more youth from temporary foster care to permanent family life in the area.
The tools of our Child Services program include:
• Child Registration and Matching: Our four Child Services Coordinators (CSCs), in collaboration with social workers,
register waiting children with MARE, so that we can begin to recruit families for each child. Once registered, the children’s
basic data becomes searchable through our Online Matching program for families to search and inquire about children who
might be a good match for their families. Our CSCs also proactively run matches for their children with the families in our
database.
• The MARE Photolisting® book, at over 300 libraries and agencies statewide, features photographs and profiles of
waiting children in English for all children, and in Spanish as well for children of Hispanic heritage. Updates, featuring
Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc. (MARE)
Family & Youth Alliance Proposal Narrative 04/04/2012
newly available children, are provided to each location every month, and posted to our website. Each Child Services
Coordinator writes the profiles of each child they’re registering, so we can use this profile of the child’s personality and
needs as the basis for finding the right family for them. We also create and post Video Snapshots of children to provide
another way for families to experience a child’s personality.
•Child-specific Media Campaigns: MARE coordinates 30 ongoing newspaper features, including Sunday’s Child® in the
Boston Globe, and features in five Spanish-language newspapers. MARE also coordinates Wednesday’s Child, which
features interviews with a child or sibling group, hosted weekly by news anchor Jack Williams on WBZ-TV. MARE also
coordinates En Busca de un Hogar, a similar monthly child-interview segment on the Spanish language cable station,
Univision.
•Heart Gallery Photography Exhibit: Volunteer photographers create striking portraits of children awaiting adoption.
MARE brings the Heart Gallery exhibit to public locations statewide, from malls and libraries to local banks and retail
stores. Last year, Heart Gallery portraits along with adoption information were displayed in 35 different venues statewide.
•Adoption Parties and Informational Events bring together social workers, waiting children and prospective adoptive
families for networking and matching. Adoption parties are fun, activity-filled events that give children a chance to interact
with prospective parents in a low-key atmosphere. MARE organized 18 of these events last year because they continue to
be our most effective tool in matching children with families, accounting for 35% of all placements.
Our Child Services Program works. One of our most recently matched children is Analeysa, a creative and active 12-yearold, who was registered with MARE at 9-years-old after she was placed into foster care. It took almost three years and
many different tactics to find the right match to meet Analeysa’s unique needs, but her Child Services Coordinator (CSC)
worked with her social worker each step of the way. Some of these steps included:
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August, 2009: Analeysa’s CSC registered her in the MARE Database so her information was searchable to prospective
families. The CSC created a Photolisting® profile distributed statewide and on our website.
 January, 2010: Her CSC coordinated a feature in the Boston Globe as Sunday’s Child. Analeysa was also featured on
WBZ-TV as Wednesday’s Child and in articles in the Hampshire Gazette and the Worcester Telegram.
 February, 2011: Analeysa attended the Dorchester Adoption Party where she enjoyed refreshments and activities
while interacting with families interested in adopting.
 July, 2011: Analeysa was featured in a Video Snapshot that was posted onto the MARE website. Her video was
created by a volunteer videographer with the help of Analeysa’s CSC and social worker.
That same month, Analeysa’s energetic and lively Video Snapshot inspired Howard and Elizabeth to contact MARE and
ask about the adoption process. Howard began to volunteer as a Heart Gallery photographer for MARE and he and his
wife completed their adoption training and homestudy that December. Among other MARE matching events, Howard and
Elizabeth attended our Teen Cooking Adoption Party in February where they connected with Analeysa’s social worker.
Later that month they began the process to adopt Analeysa.
Overall, MARE received almost 300 inquiries about Analeysa thanks to the efforts of her CSC and the many services
offered through our Child Services Program. Howard, however, was quick to credit MARE’s Video Snapshots: “Analeysa’s
video was a catalyst for us. It made it more human for us.”
A grant from Family & Youth Alliance will be used to fund salaries/benefits of our four Child Services Coordinators who
serve the children on their case load waiting for adoption. As a human services agency roughly 75% of our budget funds the
humans who provide these labor intensive services. Funds would be spent between 7/1/2012 and 12/31/2012.
CONCLUSION
Every child needs a safe and dependable family. Children need to grow up in families, not in temporary foster care or group
homes. When that basic foundational need is not met, children are less likely to benefit from any other enrichment
programs. In the hierarchy of needs, home and family must come first.
These are our children, in the custody of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and supported by our tax dollars. We owe
them the investment of time and resources to find and support the adults who can make the commitment to give these
children a lifetime of love and security.