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Helping Youth Find the Forever Families They Need

Too often, children linger in foster care once they are ready for adoption because of a lack of an adoptive resource. Waiting too long to find a safe, loving adoptive family increases children’s risk of aging out of foster care without support. Sadly, it is common that extended family have lost contact with the child while they were in care, and are unaware of their significant needs. Research shows that when placed with family or friends, children have improved outcomes and more positive experiences.

Adoptive Family Placement

Extreme Family Finding puts a team of recruiters and private investigators to work finding multiple extended family members and kin relationships for children most at risk of aging out of foster care without an adoptive resource. This includes older youth, large sibling groups, and children with significant medical or mental health issues.

Extreme Family Finding credits its roots to the successful Extreme Recruitment program model, created by the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition of St. Louis.

Extreme Family Finding builds on that successful model by creating a family tree, contacting and educating family and kin, working to identify permanent adoptive resources and other sources of relational permanency for children and youth, and wrapping concierge support and post-placement services around those identified families. With a combination of research, advocacy, and support, 80% of the children served are matched with permanency resources and 90% are reconnected with safe and appropriate lifelong support.

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Meet the Youth in Need of a Forever Family

Tour our Extreme Family Finding™ Gallery to learn more about the specific youth for whom FosterAdopt Connect is seeking qualified and interested forever families.

Extreme Family Finding™ Case Requirements

Children served by Extreme Family Finding™ must be:


Aged 10 or older. Exceptions to this are allowed if the child meets ONE or more of the following criteria:

  • The child is part of a sibling group being served.
  • The child has documented elevated medical or mental health needs.
  • The child has been legally free for adoption for six months with no permanent resource identified.

Legally free for adoption. An exception may be made if ALL of the following criteria are met:

  • Reunification is no longer the case plan.
  • The court grants written permission to the Extreme Family Finding™ team to utilize the child’s picture and strengths-based profile for recruitment through print media, online resources, and on television.
  • The child’s Family Support Team agrees that Extreme Family Finding™ is in the child’s best interest.

Extreme Family Finding™ Success Story

Ten-year-old Demaje had been in foster care for three years after his mother abandoned him at an area residential facility. His tantrums and physical aggression were such that he had only spent one week in a regular foster home before returning to residential care. The whereabouts of his mother were unknown and there was little documentation about additional family members.

Through intensive case file review and investigative efforts, Demaje's family tree was expanded to include twelve known relatives. Extreme Family Finding™ found and made contact with an uncle, who resides in California. Demaje's uncle shared that he had been actively involved in his nephew’s life until Demaje's mother moved out-of-state when he was five years old. The uncle shared through tears that he had been searching for Demaje for years and believed he would never see him again. Thanks to the connection made with his caring uncle, Demaje was adopted and now has a chance at success instead of a future of aging out of the system without a family connection.

Your Donation Makes a Difference

Your donation can help us improve the reach and success of programs like Extreme Family Finding™.

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