Celebrating Adoption in the Black community

Client: National Adoption Recruitment Steering Group

Objective
Social disparities are disheartening whatever the circumstance, so knowing a Black child has to spend longer in care, principally because of their race is heart-breaking.

As part of #YouCanAdopt nationwide campaign, we helped to address this disparity, by increasing the number of potential Black adopters registering their interest in adoption.

Approach
Our research showed specific barriers prevent Black people from considering adoption, including misconceptions about the type of person eligible, financial concerns and fear of an intrusive process.

We developed a multi-layered community engagement strategy to tackle these barriers and negative perceptions about adoption head-on. Central to our strategy was celebrating and converting heartfelt altruism that already exists across Black communities towards adoption into action.

We showcased the lived experiences of Black adopters, and created space for authentic conversations with adopters and social workers to drive deeper engagement among potential Black adopters through community events, podcasts, media interviews and street ambassador activity in relevant community touchpoints across Birmingham and Manchester.

Results

The ultimate goal is to make our services redundant on a purpose brief, and we did just that on this campaign. Our work resulted in the National Adoption Steering Group seeing a significant uplift in Black people coming forward to adopt.