Nevada Division of Child and Family Services using Family-Match program

The Nevada Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) has joined forces with nonprofit organization Adoption-Share to utilize Family-Match, a program driven by technology, created to improve adoption results for children in foster care.

“The Family-Match data-driven, decision-support tool enhances the matching process for children awaiting [adoption],” a press release explained. “By leveraging compatibility assessments created by industry-leading researchers, Family-Match focuses on relational fit, helping agencies identify families most likely to provide stable, long-term placements.”

Nevada families looking into adoption begin by making a profile and entering information such as parenting experience, household demographics, and preferences like age or gender for the child they’d like to adopt. After this, a DCFS adoption recruiter will then use the Family-Match application to decide suitable pairings for children in the Silver State.

“The current method is time-consuming and cumbersome,” DCFS adoption worker Ashley Hall said in the press release. “We are at the mercy of families finding a child’s profile and inquiring, whereas Family-Match gives us a database to search through families in one location.”

DCFS is the child welfare agency for Nevada’s rural counties. There are currently 30 children hoping to be adopted with their profiles in the Family-Match software. DCFS adoption workers use data from potential adoptive families to find the best match.

“The match doesn’t end when a child is placed with a family for adoption. Maintaining the child’s placement and avoiding “disruption” is also a goal of using the Family-Match technology,” the press release informed. “According to Adoption-Share, in a sample of 696 placements made with Family-Match in Florida, the disruption rate was up to 60% lower than estimates of disruption for a similar population of children seeking adoption (13.6% compared to 34.4%). Florida began using Family-Match in July 2018.”

November is National Adoption Awareness Month, a time dedicated to commemorating families established through adoption and raising awareness about the necessity for more adoptive families, especially for the youth in foster care.

“Family-Match is a great resource to assist in finding the perfect family for my kids,” Gabrielle Melvin, adoption recruitment specialist for Twin Oaks Community Services in Florida, said in the press release. “I love using the assessment tool and being able to see how different families compare to the different personalities and needs of my kids.”

For more information about Family-Match visit family-match.org.

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com