Below is a small but growing list of GWK Academy’s most highly recommended and fully-vetted adoption and foster agencies, as well as the geographic regions in which their waiting families must reside. To the extent one or more of these agencies serves your home area, we strongly encourage you to contact them. (Of course, you do not have to live in the home state of any agency that lists “nationwide” as its region served.) Keep in mind that whenever you reach out to an agency, be sure to ask if they are currently accepting new waiting families.

GWK has a history with most of the agencies included in this list, and we cannot emphasize strongly enough the necessity that LGBTQ+ people work with inclusive agencies that value LGBTQ+ family-building. (Factoids: Across the nation, only 1 in 4 agencies is inclusive and welcoming; 11 states have passed bills that allow adoption and foster care agencies to legally discriminate against prospective LGBTQ parents.)

One final note…agencies with an asterisk following their names are not currently–or do not usually–provide matching services for you with pregnant people; however, they will help prospective adoptive parents with their home study and adoption training classes, and even pre and post-adoption services.

• A Love Beyond Borders*: Adoption agency serving Colorado
• Advocates for Children and Families: Adoption agency based in Florida and serving waiting families nationwide except New York state (AO)
• Adoption Connection: Adoption agency serving northern California (AO)
• Adoptions From the Heart: Adoption agency serving Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York Pennsylvania, and Virginia
• Paths for Families*: Adoption and foster adopt agency serving DC, Maryland, and Virginia (AO)
• Alliance for Children: Adoption agency with offices in Arkansas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Southern Florida, and Texas; Intercountry adoption agency
• Amara: Foster agency serving Puget Sound area of the state of Washington
• Children’s Service Society of Utah: Adoption and foster agency serving Utah
• Extraordinary Families: Foster agency serving Los Angeles county
• Friends in Adoption: Adoption agency serving Northeastern US; also sometimes works with waiting families nationwide (AO)
• JustChoice: Adoption agency serving Ohio; also works with waiting families nationwide (AO)
• Open Adoption & Family Services: Adoption agency serving Oregon and Washington
• Pact: An Adoption Alliance: Adoption agency based in California and serving waiting families nationwide except New York state (AO)
• Spence-Chapin: Domestic adoption agency serving New York, parts of New Jersey, and Arizona; Intercountry adoption agency works with waiting families nationwide
• The Cradle: Adoption agency serving Illinois and Indiana
• Vista del Mar: Adoption, foster, and foster-adopt agency serving California; Intercountry adoption agency
• You Gotta Believe: Adoption agency serving New York state that has a focus on providing homes for children and older youth in the foster system

Pro-choice proponents will feel especially supported working with one of the agencies listed above with an “AO” designation, which means that they subscribe to the belief that counseling of pregnant people should include all their options, even the option of termination.

Here are several other resources to help you source an agency partner:

• National Council on Adoption: Scroll down to the section labeled “Find an Agency or Attorney;” and click on “Adoption Agency;” and select the relevant service (i.e. “domestic adoption” or “adoption from foster care”); and, VERY IMPORTANT, click the box labeled “Services for LGBT persons;” before clicking the “Submit” button
• HRC All Children – All Families: **HRC’s accredited list of adoption and foster family-building partners is now hidden due to the current administration’s attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which have made it unsafe for some organizations to be publicly listed**. Schedule a call with Brian to learn about trusted partners who support LGBTQ+ family-building.
• Wendy’s Wonderful Kids: Here you can find at least one LGBTQ-affirming adoption or foster care agency in every U.S. state and Canadian province through this philanthropic program run by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which requires its partners to sign a non-discrimination commitment to receive funding. (Note that most of these agency listings are foster agencies.)
• Independent Adoption: Each of the organizations listed below maintains directories of lawyers committed to diversity. (Remember that independent adoption is not legal in every state.)
  
  • The LGBT Bar Association’s Family Law Institute
  • National Council on Adoption
  • The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Professionals
• International Adoption: New York City-based adoption agency Spence-Chapin runs two international programs that are open and welcoming to LGBTQ families from across the U.S.

If this all feels overwhelming or stress-inducing, no worries. Schedule a coaching call with Brian and he’ll be happy to work one-on-one with you until you’ve been matched with the right adoption or foster agency, or adoption attorney.