Quick Tips and Tools for
Recruitment and Retention

These tip sheets and toolkits were designed with the busy child welfare professional in mind by the National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents (NRCRRFAP) at AdoptUSKids.

You can download the resources below or order printed copies (PDF - 78 KB).  Both are free of charge for both public and private agencies.

• General Recruitment Tools       
• Family Retention Tools       
• Tools for Working With Diverse Communities   
• Targeted Recruitment Tools      
• Interstate and Interjurisdictional Placement Tools    
• Assessment and Planning Tools     
   

For more in-depth recruitment and retention materials, browse our resource guides and curricula for child welfare staff.

Don’t see what you’re looking for? Send us your suggestions for tip sheets and tools you would like to see by contacting us at NRCRRFAP@adoptuskids.org.

General Recruitment Tools

Learn how to build public interest and awareness of the need for foster and adoptive parents for children in care.

• Characteristics of Successful Recruitment Practitioners (PDF – 198 KB): Highlights qualities many effective recruiters have in common
   
• Improving Recruitment Outcomes: 11 Things a Practitioner Can Do (PDF – 206 KB): Highlights specific steps recruiters can take to find and keep more foster and adoptive families
   

Family Retention Tools

Find ideas for keeping prospective and current parents engaged and supported.

Improving Retention Through Customer Service

• Five Things You Can Do to Improve Customer Service — Phone Interaction With Families (PDF – 186 KB): Suggests simple steps for improving customer service as you interact with current and prospective foster, adoptive, and kinship families
   
• 10 Things You Can Do to Improve Customer Service — Prospective Parent Orientation Sessions (PDF – 201 KB): Offers simple ideas for creating a more welcoming and encouraging climate at orientations for prospective parents
   
• Every Month Is Customer Service Month (PDF - 107 KB): Offers ideas for simple ways to partner more effectively with prospective and current parents by integrating customer service principles in your daily work
   
• Barriers and Success Factors in Adoption from Foster Care: Perspectives of Families and Staff (PDF – 2.1 MB) An AdoptUSKids report on barriers experienced by a nationwide group of families seeking to adopt children from the U.S. foster care system and factors that contribute to successful adoption outcomes

Other Retention Resources

• Resource Family Retention: An Overview (PDF – 62 KB): A brief fact sheet by the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections and Casey Family Programs outlining strategies that work for retaining foster and adoptive families for children
   
• “Why are Foster Parents Leaving? What Foster Parents Want Their Agencies to Know” (PDF – 244 KB): An article from Fostering Families Today magazine on how agencies can better assess, prepare, and support foster families
   

Tools for Working With Diverse Communities

Build individual and agency cultural competency for working with diverse populations of children and families.

• Working With African American Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Families (PDF – 2.5 MB): Provides tips for becoming more culturally competent and partnering more effectively with prospective and current African American foster, adoptive, and kinship families
   
• Moving Toward Cultural Competence: Key Considerations to Explore (PDF – 227 KB): Assists child welfare staff in building their capacity for effective, culturally competent recruitment and retention efforts with diverse communities
   
• Strategies for Recruiting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Families (PDF – 435 KB): Provides an introduction to the topic of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parents as resources in the child welfare system, followed by a discussion of strategies for recruiting and engaging LGBT families; developed collaboratively by the National Resource Center for Adoption, the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections, and the National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents at AdoptUSKids
   
• LGBT Foster and Adoptive Parenting (PDF – 188 KB): Brief resource handout from the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections and AdoptUSKids provides a basic overview of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) foster and adoptive parenting issues, including research on LGBT parenting, laws and policies on LGBT foster and adoptive parenting and how agencies can better welcome, recruit and retain LGBT resource families
   
• Recruiting and Retaining LGBT Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Families: Sending a Welcoming Message (PDF – 216 KB): Highlights the importance of using appropriate language and images to convey that your agency welcomes LGBT prospective parents in order to help improve recruitment and retention outcomes with LGBT individuals and offers specific suggestions for using welcoming, inclusive language as you work with LGBT prospective parents
   
• Talking with Experts on Engaging LGBT Families, Part 1: Creating a Welcoming Environment (PDF – 217 KB): Offers ideas on ways agencies can help LGBT prospective parents feel welcome through inclusive messages, explicit policies, and community connections
   
• Talking with Experts on Engaging LGBT Families, Part 2: How Leaders Can Build Agency Competency (PDF – 215 KB): Offers suggestions on ways supervisors, program directors, and administrators can increase staff capacity for working appropriately and sensitively with LGBT prospective and current parents
   
• Talking with Experts on Engaging LGBT Families, Part 3: Important Conversations in Child Welfare (PDF – 215 KB): Highlights important topics for child welfare professionals to discuss in order to help increase capacity to work with LGBT prospective and current parents
   

Targeted Recruitment Tools

Find resources to help you recruit in specific communities or on behalf of specific populations of children.

• Tip Sheets on Recruiting Families for Preteens (PDF - 696 KB): Provides strategies and principles for recruiting prospective families for preteens in foster care, preparing preteens for adoption, and developing child profiles
   
• Why Should I Go the Extra Step to Place a Child For Adoption With an American Military Family Living in Another Country? (PDF - 210 KB): Addresses preceived barriers and concerns to placing a child with U.S. military families stations overseas
   
• Practice Principles and Seven-Step Process for Sibling Recruitment (PDF – 384 KB): Highlights key considerations and practice tips for keeping siblings together or connected through foster, adoptive, and kinship placements
   
• Ten Myths and Realities of Sibling Adoptions (PDF – 216 KB): Dispels common misconceptions about siblings being adopted
   

Interstate and Interjurisdictional
Placement Tools

Learn the basic elements involved in making interjurisdictional placements.

• Receiving State Checklist: Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC) (PDF – 762 KB)
   
• Sending State Checklist: Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC) (PDF – 466 KB)
   
• "How Attorneys Can Improve Interstate Placements: Lessons Learned from State CIP Assessments” (PDF – 100 KB): An article in the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Child Law Practice journal detailing several strategies attorneys can use to facilitate interstate placements
   

Assessment and Planning Tools

Increase your understanding of your agency’s capacity and readiness for recruitment and retention efforts.

• Is Your Response System Family Friendly? (PDF – 131 KB): An agency self-assessment tool examining how well your response system meets the needs of families throughout the foster and adoptive parent recruitment process