There are over 400,000 children in foster care in the United States and over 100,000 children who are available for adoption in the United States. Certain groups of children are harder to place in foster care and harder to adopt. Children who are over the age of 8, sibling groups, minorities, medically fragile children, those with behavioral issues or mental health disease, and boys are hard to place and adopt. As a current foster parent and soon-to-be adoptive mother, I have a few insights into ways to promote children’s photolistings. My husband and I have gone on multiple photolisting websites and inquired about children to adopt.
- Use current photos. Many photolistings have old information and photos of children. This can be misleading to prospective adoptive families who have certain type of children in mind.
- Make sure you use a professional photographer who knows how to take advantage of lighting and background. These types of photos are more inviting and make capture more attention.
- Make sure the children are well groomed and appropriately dressed.
- Have children smile or engage in a particular activity during the photo or video that makes him or her smile. Families are more interested in children who look friendly to be a part of their families.
- Have positive information about the children. List what he/she is interested in, their favorite school subject, favorite animal, etc. This forms an immediate emotional bond with prospective families who have similar interests.
- When trying to place siblings together, use pictures of them individually and together. This captures the closeness between siblings.
- Use every social media avenue available: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
- Make photolistings on social media shareable.
- Showcase one child or sibling group per day or week.
- Use multiple accounts or websites to showcase photolistings.
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