NORTHEAST OHIO Agency gets grant to boost adoptions
The programs will begin in Columbiana and Portage counties.
WARREN -- Northeast Ohio Adoption Services has been awarded a federal demonstration grant, "Rural Targeted Community Outreach," with goals and objectives planned over the next five years.
The community outreach initiative, supported by $400,000 annually, will use social marketing and community organizing theory and practice to target rural Ohio counties.
It will address the insufficient number of adoptive families for Ohio children who are waiting for a permanent home.
The programs will begin in Columbiana and Portage counties over the next 12 months, and NOAS will spend the next year concentrating efforts in the two counties.
Reaching out
The program will reach out to rural families to find homes for children, and then train and support the adoptive families. The agency will collaborate with health and human service providers.
The results, after evaluation by Youngstown State University's Center for Human Services Development, will then be disseminated through a Web site, articles, publications and presentations.
Northeast Ohio Adoption Services, with offices in Warren and Maple Heights, is a private, nonprofit adoption agency founded in 1978. It does not charge fees to families for adoption.
In Ohio, 6,000 children are waiting for a permanent, loving home. Since its inception, NOAS has found families for more than 950 children.