AdoptUSKids

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The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to establish, by awarding a cooperative agreement, a multi-faceted national AdoptUSKids project designed to assist states, tribes, and territories in the recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive parents for children in public foster care. The AdoptUSKids project will encompass the following components: (1) National Adoption Internet Photolisting Service: Maintain and manage the National Adoption Internet Photolisting Website (www.AdoptUSKids.org); coordinate with all states, tribes, and territories for the listing of their eligible children/youth while incorporating best practices and quality improvement standards in photolisting; (2) National Adoption Recruitment Campaign: Plan, develop and implement CB’s multimedia National Adoption Recruitment Campaign and a corresponding Recruitment Response Support Initiative intended to reach and inspire adult Americans to adopt by offering important, accurate information about the foster care system and the adoption process. Develop a donated public service campaign strategy and annually create and produce multi-media products including public service announcements for television, radio, print and social media, building on the body of work of the National Adoption Campaign launched in 2004. This project will also provide support to states, tribes, and territories to provide increased access to new recruitment media and their ability to respond in a timely and customer-friendly manner; (3) National Adoption and Foster Care Information Exchange System: Maintain a National Adoption and Foster Care Information Exchange System that raises public awareness and assists states, tribes, and territories in recruiting foster and adoptive parents for children in foster care. This will include conducting National Adoption Month activities to raise public awareness and coordinating with organizations sponsoring National Foster Care Month activities. The design of this system will incorporate the provision of a 24-hour, nationwide, toll-free communications network designed to respond to the inquiries from prospective foster and adoptive parents as well as the general public regarding the foster and adoption process. These services will be provided in English and Spanish and will be accessible to other limited English-speaking and non-English speaking callers and those who may require other communication accommodations; (4) Adoptive and Foster Family Support Activities: Develop and disseminate information, strategies, and effective or evidence-based models for the implementation of adoptive and foster family support activities for states, tribes, and territories. Develop and disseminate information on innovative approaches for creating communities of practice, peer-to-peer technical assistance, and leadership training to enhance and support adoptive and foster family support groups; (5) Capacity Building Services for Diligent Recruitment and Retention of Foster/Adoptive Families: Provide limited constituency services and universal product development and dissemination to states, tribes, and territories across the nation to assist in building agency capacity for the diligent recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive families, primarily focused on models of best practices related to photolisting, recruitment media, customer service and adoptive and foster family support activities; (6) Minority Professional Leadership Development (MPLD) in the Adoption Field: Provide for the on-going development, capacity building and implementation of the MPLD program to promote professional leadership development of minorities in the adoption field.

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