LARGO, Fla., Nov. 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last year Florida's community-based foster care agencies finalized the adoptions of over 3,000 children with loving families – and more than 17,000 have been adopted from Florida foster care in the past five years. While excellent progress had been made, at any given time an estimated 800 Florida children still await permanent homes – nearly 300 here in the Tampa Bay area. These are the community's children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, and are now legally available for adoption. These are children who deserve to have every avenue explored on the road to finding their adoptive family.
So Eckerd Community Alternatives, the lead agency that provides community-based foster care and adoption services in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties began looking for a solution – and the solution they found was CAIRS. CAIRS has helped thousands of families nationwide enjoy an easier, more successful child adoption experience via their secure online adoption software called ParentFinder. As adoptive parents themselves, the founders of CAIRS are passionate and committed to improving the adoption experience for both prospective adoptive families and the agencies that support them.
"We've taken proven online technology and applied it to the work of adoption," stated CAIRS Solutions CEO Mark Livings. "CAIRS is a ground-breaking online matching system that focuses on the strengths of families, systematizes the adoption match process, and bridges all geographic barriers."
"The next logical step was to partner with CAIRS so that children in Eckerd's foster care system could also benefit," added Judith Warren, Executive Director for Eckerd Community Alternatives in Pasco and Pinellas counties. "We believe there are no unwanted children, just unfound families. ParentFinder improves our ability to find these families. It streamlines the process and gives our adoption case workers instant online access to waiting families, empowering our families to positively advocate for themselves."
Eckerd and CAIRS chose to kick-off this new software initiative this month, as November is National Adoption Month.
How It Works
The ParentFinder software connects interested, waiting families with case workers of foster children awaiting adoption in a way that is more efficient and effective for all parties involved. Waiting families create an online profile and answer a questionnaire about their strengths and needs. Case workers answer a few questions about their children who need homes. The online software system then prioritizes waiting families that would be a good match for the child and notifies the child's case worker – a much improved system than the current one which requires workers to search through mounds of home studies sitting on their desks or tucked away in files.
In addition, ParentFinder has a component that supports families beyond the adoption match, allowing them to participate in an online community for post-adopt support, mentoring, and other online resources.
Any individual or family interested in adopting a child from foster care can join for free by visiting ParentFinder.com and clicking on the "JOIN" button. The site also offers upgrades, such as uploading family photo albums or videos, for a nominal fee. For more information about the many benefits of registering with ParentFinder, contact Mark Livings at (727) 230-9020 or Mark.Livings@cairssolutions.com.
About Eckerd Community Alternatives
Eckerd Community Alternatives serves as the Community-Based Care Lead Agency for child welfare and foster care services in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties and is responsible for the safety, well-being and permanency of over 6,000 children and their families each day. It is a program of Eckerd, a national nonprofit youth and family services organization headquartered in Clearwater, Florida that has given much-needed second chances to over 100,000 children and families since its founding by Jack and Ruth Eckerd in 1968. To learn more visit EckerdCBC.org.
The Eckerd Community Alternatives logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=15903
About CAIRS Solutions.com
CAIRS Solutions is a leading provider of adoption and foster care management software and cloud computing solutions to family support organizations. CAIRS offers a suite of advanced technology solutions focused around the entire life cycle of adoption and foster care management. Services are centered on the design, implementation and support of adoption agency and attorney processes, including online forms for parents, parent-child matching, electronic profiles, and post-adoption support, pictures and letters to birth parents. Customers include large and small organizations supported by transaction pricing. Due to its focus, expertise and experience implementing and supporting advanced technology solutions for adoption related services, CAIRS believes it is well positioned to deliver superior solutions and services to its customers. Additional information about CAIRS can be found on line at CAIRSSolutions.com. Additional information about its products can be found at ParentFinder.com; ChildConnect.com; and MyAdoptPortal.com.
The CAIRS Solutions LLC logo is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=14829