Through this program, COAC recruits and prepares prospective adoptive parents who are interested in adopting waiting children: those children in foster care who are legally free for adoption and as yet have no adoptive home. The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program assists persons interested in adopting New York City’s longest-waiting group of children with special needs: African American and Hispanic children, older children, emotionally or medically fragile children, and sibling groups. At the present time the great majority of waiting children in New York City are age 10 or over; in fact, fully half are teenagers.

The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program welcomes inquiries from prospective applicants…
• age 21 or over,
• of any race, ethnicity, national origin, and creed,
• single, married or partnered and regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
• who rent or own an apartment or house,
• who have a stable income,
• and most important of all, who have room in their hearts for a waiting child

The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program provides orientation meetings in English and in Spanish for prospective parents from the five boroughs of New York City. A complete home study is conducted, and parents are additionally prepared through the MAPP/GPS (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting / Group Preparation and Support) Program. Once prospective adoptive parents are fully prepared, The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program staff works closely with the parents to identify a child or children. The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program staff makes contact with the agency responsible for the child to introduce the prospective family to the child’s planning team, and serves as an advocate for the prospective family, keeping the process moving until a child is placed.

While COAC serves prospective adoptive parents from the New York City area with this array of comprehensive services, we also provide “courtesy” services to families from other regions and states who have completed a homestudy and training requirements in their local area, and who seek to adopt New York City children.

For all people interested in adoption, The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program serves as a clearinghouse for information on the process. If prospective families are not interested in adopting an older waiting foster child, The Virginia Butler Family Recruitment Program staff refers them to the appropriate agency to meet their needs.

Contact:

Eileen Lopez

Program Director

Phone: (212) 475-0222 Ext 222

Fax: (212) 714-2838

Email: elopez@coac.org