About NCFA : Mission, Agenda, and Programs

Mission, Agenda, and Programs

Mission

Founded in 1980, the National Council For Adoption (NCFA) is a research, education, and advocacy organization whose mission is to promote the well-being of children, birthparents, and adoptive families by advocating for the positive option of adoption. NCFA is an adoption advocate and expert in the halls of power and the courts of public opinion, on behalf of all parties to adoption and its member adoption agencies around the country.

Agenda

Following is a summary of NCFA’s adoption agenda to put children first

• Train pregnancy counselors and health care workers in infant adoption awareness, so women and teens with unplanned pregnancies can freely consider the loving option of adoption.
• Promote adoptions out of foster care, and support children in foster care by advocating for court and financing reforms.
• Expedite permanency for children in foster care by advancing increased and improved adoptive and foster parent recruitment strategies through public-private partnerships.
• Protect birthmothers and make adoptions secure through putative father registries, so uninvolved birthfathers cannot block birthmothers’ adoption plans for their children.
• Strengthen the adoption tax credit and advance other pro-adoption fiscal policies, so more families can afford to adopt.
• Support Safe Havens, so desperate birthmothers can place their children safely and legally with authorized caregivers, rather than abandoning them, or worse.
• Reduce obstacles to transracial adoption, so children are not denied loving families on account of race.
• Work with the US and foreign governments to establish sound policies for intercountry adoption, so foreign orphans can be placed with loving, permanent families.
• Protect the principles of mutual consent and the option of privacy in adoption, so parties to adoption do not have their privacy breached without their consent.
• Serve as an authoritative information clearinghouse on adoption statistics, policies, and practices, so policy makers, adoption professionals, the media, and the public are well informed regarding trends in adoption.
• Provide to our adoption agency members training and education in the latest in adoption practices and regulations, so they can provide excellent adoption services.
• Promote adoption in the media with facts and insight, so Americans will recognize adoption as the loving option it is.

Programs

NCFA promotes sound adoption policies and practices, and improves public understanding of and attitudes toward adoption, through:

• Policy Analysis and Government Relations - NCFA is perhaps most famous for its leadership in the area of public policy. Policy makers in all levels and branches of government, look to NCFA for leadership and analysis of adoption policy issues. NCFA provides strategic policy briefs, expert testimony at legislative hearings, personalized briefings on adoption issues, conferences, grassroots leadership, and monitoring and reporting on adoption-related legislative activities.
• Research and Publications - NCFA publishes various white papers, editorials, monographs, and National Adoption Reports, its well-read quarterly newsletter for members and supporters. NCFA’s Adoption Factbook series is a comprehensive and authoritative resource that reports on all aspects of adoption policy and practice, and provides adoption data based on original research and unavailable anywhere else. It is the only nongovernmental source cited recently in the 'Other Sources of Data' section of the Census Bureau’s special report on adoption, Adopted Children and Stepchildren: 2000.
• Media Relations and Public Education - NCFA is one of the first places journalists turn to for facts and analysis of adoption issues. Through news releases, op eds, PSAs, media outreach, and other pro-active communication strategies, NCFA informs and influences opinion leaders and public opinion. NCFA has advocated adoption in virtually every major media outlet in the US, including recent appearances with CNN, MSNBC, Black Entertainment Television, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Des Moines Register, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Boston Globe, and The Washington Times.
• Agency Services, Training, and Best Practices - Through its Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program, NCFA works with agency members and other adoption professionals to train pregnancy and health counselors on how to present adoption as a positive option to women with unplanned pregnancies. NCFA educates agency members on how to work with the foster care system and the emerging Hague rules for intercountry adoption.
• Information Clearinghouse and Referrals - NCFA handles thousands of inquiries per year about adoption and serves as a comprehensive and authoritative adoption information clearinghouse for everyone interested or involved in adoption. NCFA helps prospective adoptive parents understand the adoption process and provides them referrals. In addition to the Adoption Factbook and this Web site, www.adoptioncouncil.org, NCFA provides real-time e-communications, such as e-Memo, to policy makers, journalists, adoption professionals, and NCFA supporters.
• Conferences and Events - NCFA’s annual National Adoption Conference and other policy events assemble adoption leaders to examine cutting-edge issues in policy and practice. At the annual Adoption Hall of Fame Awards Banquet, NCFA honors individuals who make outstanding contributions to adoption by inducting them into its Adoption Hall of Fame. NCFA’s annual Kids at Heart festival celebrates adoption with adoptive families during National Adoption Month, with a fun-filled afternoon of circus performers, clowns, arcade games, and celebrities.