Adoption Options

Background Statement

In 1981, a group of adoptive parents and adoption professionals joined together to form Adoption Options, a 501 (c) (3) licensed child placement agency. The mission was and is for Adoption Options is to provide non-sectarian adoption services for Colorado residents. To date, Adoption Options has placed over 1550 children. Currently, Adoption Options employs 18 full and part time staff. Approximately 45 hours are volunteered by members of the community every month.

Adoption Options offers no-cost counseling to individuals and families that are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Options Counselors provide resources, information, and nonjudgemental counseling. Adoptive Family Caseworkers provide training, home studies, and ongoing support to families who are hoping to adopt an infant.

Fostering Healthy Futures is an intensive 30-week program that serves through individual therapeutic mentorship and skills groups. This evidence-based program was developed through the renowned Kempe Center, and outcomes include five times greater permanency for participants.

Adoption Options has a thriving flexible family program that seeks to place children from the child welfare system into safe and stable families. After placement, a team of professionals work to ensure that families have the adequate resources and services to promote success for the child and the family. Adoption Options' extensive training development and support strives to teach and educate the community, professionals and families on trauma informed care and other relevant parenting information.

Since its inception, Adoption Options has provided leadership among its professional peers. The agency's philosophy of partnership with adoptive parents and birth parents, community partners including child welfare has put it in the forefront of the movement towards openness in adoption. The phrase "open adoption" is a flexible term that describes how adoptive and birth parents agree to communicate about their child. This communication ranges from exchanging a picture, to one-time meetings without identities shared, to a more comprehensive schedule of visits, letters and photographs throughout the child's life.

Often the fees paid by adoptive families in these placements do not cover the costs incurred by the agency. In our mission to be inclusive it is important that fees remain attainable for families; and the agency is supported by donations, fundraising events and fees for services. We rely on fundraising events and donations to make up for the difference in expenses as we strive to make adoption an affordable way to build a family.