Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program

Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program

The Adoption Awareness Act of 2000 paved the way for NCFA’s Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program (IAATP).

Since 2002, NCFA has been providing adoption awareness training to options counselors as the original recipient of a national grant to conduct the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program (IAATP) in all 50 states.

Growing out of legislation by the U.S. Congress in 2000, the primary purpose of the program was to train pregnancy and health counselors in federally funded clinics to present adoption as an option to women with unplanned pregnancies. In more than 1,700 training days since 2002, NCFA’s IAATP has trained more than 17,000 individuals from all 50 states, 94 percent of whom rated the trainings “Excellent.” 

Beginning in 2007, NCFA is pleased to be designated as the Infant Adoption Training Initiative Grantee for Health Region 3, which includes Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.  NCFA will be working in conjunction with the other grantees to train health care workers and those involved in providing counseling and support services to those impacted by an unintended pregnancy. 

For more about the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program,  or to register to attend a training please visit http://www.infantadopt.org.

Training is the centerpiece of this program. NCFA provides training across the country to counselors working in federally funded family planning clinics, community health centers, and other locations. The trainings conducted by NCFA better enable counselors and others at these sites to help teens and women, who face a crisis pregnancy, to make a fully informed choice. Since these workers are often the first professionals seen by these clients about their unplanned pregnancy, their ability to present all the options in a careful and caring manner is critical to an effective decision-making process. In order to reach the thousands of workers who help these clients each day, NCFA has enlisted adoption workers to help deliver the training program. The "Train the Trainer" model allows NCFA to train adoption workers who then train clinic workers. It's a partnership that facilitates training and builds a corps of workers dedicated to the goals of the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program.

NCFA has developed a mass media campaign to advertise and support the program by helping raise public awareness of adoption. The images and themes are available in both print and electronic media. The public service awareness campaign is designed around a simple message - to say privately and publicly to all involved, "Thanks for considering Adoption!" Click here to view these public service announcements.

The Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program was introduced in late 2001. To date, NCFA has trained more than 175 trainers, who have delivered training in all fifty states to more than 17,000 clinic workers. For more about the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program, visit www.infantadopt.org.

IAATP CEU Quiz