Definition - Facilitators are unlicensed and unregulated companies who match prospective adoptive families with women considering adoption. Facilitators are usually small organizations with one or two staff members who often have no counseling background.
Advantages:
Good facilitators can be good at locating pregnant women considering adoption.
Waiting times can be lower than many professionals.
Disadvantages:
Facilitators are not annually or periodically reviewed by any objective person, government or organization.
Facilitators only match birth parents and adoptive families and the adoptive family must find a local provider to perform the adoption services. This leads to an inconsistent experience as well as causes more adoptions to fail.
Once referred to a local adoption professional, adoptive families must put up more money and it is at-risk if the adoption doesn’t work out
Like law centers, families are frustrated with facilitators because they lack a social service department skilled in evaluating, educating and guiding birth mothers through the adoption process. As a result, families often are often matched with birth mothers who aren’t strongly committed to adoption, aren’t emotionally prepared and don’t understand the process.
Unlike many adoption agencies, facilitators often work with birth mothers who need significant help with living expenses (well over $10,000). Higher living expenses means more finances are at-risk.
Like law centers, facilitator cost estimates are the best-case scenario and rarely reflects that their clients often experience several disruptions and therefore can thousands of dollars before an adoption succeeds, meaning those losses will be added to the fees for a successful adoption.
Some facilitator contracts expire.
Facilitators often provide 20 percent of the services of licensed agencies and yet clients often end up spending more money.
Facilitators do not have the skill set to properly assess birth mothers, thus leading to more failed adoptions.
Most Facilitators are usually a one or two person operation, which leads to being overworked, burnout and not responding to clients in a timely fashion.
More than 17 states have specific laws against the use of facilitators.
Facilitators can easily go out of business with no repercussions.
States like California have even developed specific certification to help regulate these entities because of their wide vary reputation. The unfortunate part is certification will do little to regulate these providers.
Facilitators lack qualified staff to provide the proper couseling to adoptive families and birth parents as they go through the adoption process.
Facilitators lack the legal expertise to know the complexities of the various states they try to match adoptive couples with birth parents in.
Clients who use facilitators:
Clients focused on waiting times and are planning to join several organizations.
Families who have a high and flexible budget.
Clients who are willing to handle several stages of the adoption process.
Clients who wish to be gender specific.
Clients who want control of the couseling and legal process of the adoption process, although it is similar to a person who wants to drive a cruise ship when they don’t know how to drive a boat.
Clients who often have been mislead by a facilitator’s marketing information.
Clients who want an organization to advertise for them nationally.
Families who must be available to answer calls from birth parents 24 hours a day.
How do you find a good facilitator?
It should be noted that without an independent government body reviewing their files, there is no organization making sure the facilitator is indeed being truthful. Adoption agencies, for example, have their marketing information, case files and personnel files reviewed. Because there is no oversight, your questions should be more probing and you may wish to ask for the answers in writing.
Please note ... Pay attention to how long it takes for them to return your call. This is important and indicates how responsive the organization is. The adoption industry is a responsive industry.
How many families do you have on your waiting list?
How many placements did you complete last year?
Is your organization certified? By how many states?
Explain to me what you do?
Annually how many of your adoptions are completed in other states?
Does the state you are licensed in come to your offices and review your files, personnel records and make sure your organization is complying with state law and regulations?
So you advertise and locate birth mothers and then refer me to an adoption professional in the birth mothers state who takes it over from there?
If you remove yourself once the birth mother selects our family, then how do you verify the quality of work provided by the other adoption professional?
How much money can I lose to the other adoption professional if the adoption doesn’t work out?
How much money can I lose in living and medical expenses if a birth mother changes her mind?
Do their quoted fees include living, medical and legal expenses?
What are typical amounts of living expenses your birth mother’s need?
How many full-time staff members do you have on staff?
Do you have a Social Service Department on staff? How many are on staff? Can you provide me their credentials? Are they licensed by the state?
If they only have one or two staff members, then ask, what happens if they retire, quit, etc.
If you remove yourself from the process, once we are referred to another adoption professional how is your organization helpful when the birth mother is wavering?
If you don’t have a social service department then who evaluates your birth mothers? How are they qualified to do so?
What is the estimated cost to join your organization? Does that include only successful adoption cost estimates?
Are you being investigated by any attorney general’s offices? Are you not allowed to perform services in certain states because of the type organization you are?
Are any of your upfront fees at risk? Is there any point in time where I would be required to pay the upfront fee again?
Are you licensed as a facilitator in your state?
If you are not licensed to perform adoptions in other states, then how do you know the complexities and challenges in other states?
Since being licensed in your state as a facilitator, and since it does not mean anyone reviews or inspects your files, what is to prevent your organization from merely shutting down and starting another one?
How do I know your organization isn’t about to go out of business?
Do you have any pending lawsuits?
Are there any cases where you fear a lawsuit is forthcoming?
Can I adopt more quickly through your organization than with a national agency? How can I independently verify your waiting time estimates?
Have you ever had a client lose more than $20,000 in failed adoption expenses? How about $15,000? How about $10,000? Will you put that in writing and send it to me?
If you typically aren’t the organization handling my case, how does joining your organization benefit me?
Will I have to interact directly with the birth mother providing my contact information to her?
Can you give me what percentage of birth parents who join your agency decide to parent?
If I do not adopt within your timeframe, will I have to pay more money for additional advertising? If so, how long is my contract valid before I have to renew services with you?
Do you answer your phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week for potential birth mothers?
Pick up the phone and call them on Saturday or Sunday evening. This shows whether they are doing everything they can with your advertising dollar
Do their upfront advertising fees expire?
Do they maintain and regulate pictures and letters correspondence with birth parents after the adoptive placement?
Do they handle their entire process from A to Z?
* Please note that the above information generally outlines adoption professionals for educational purposes. Please carefully research the adoption professionals you are considering for information regarding specific policies and procedures for that organization.
I did a lot of research - studying many agencies on the internet, making many …read more
Mission Statement:
American Adoptions, a private adoption agency founded on the belief that lives of children can be bettered through adoption, provides safe adoption services to children, birth parents and adoptive families by educating, supporting and coordinating necessary services for adoptions throughout the United States. For more information on American Adoptions please call 1-800-ADOPTION (236-7846).
