Videos such as this one highlight the friendship and compassion of an open adoption.
As the executive director of a non-profit, Tara Saltis says her company, like any nonprofit, tries to keep a "big prescence" on the internet. The company, Friends in Adoption, with an office in Saratoga, maintains their website and runs advertisements on Google and Facebook. They post to Instagram and generally, "keep up with trends in social media."
"We want to make sure that all people who need to find us, can," she said in a recent interview.
Their prescence includes an active YouTube page. Their videos tell the stories of families who have found each other. It's a project started last November, which is national adoption awareness month, and now sports about a dozen videos.
They all feature families who have adopted, or the biological mothers who have chosen to place their children for adoption. Sometimes both.
"We try to get real people out there in the videos and news stories," Saltis said. "They'll [the veiwers will] learn that everyone is kind and compassionate."
She said she tries to avoid the word "marketing" and prefers "outreach" since she is dealing with matching two families with their children. Much of the outreach, though, is aimed at health care and welfare professionals. FIA speaks with hospital social workers and Planned Parenthood counselors. They go on college campuses and speak with counselors there. They are trying to reach the people who know of pregnant women who might be considering adoption or abortion.
Women who had not planned to be pregnant or do not know that they are pregnant might not have the means to find FIA, or they might be feeling the pinch of the crisis and not know what to do.
The videos are aimed at everyone in an effort to build awarness, Saltis said.
"We focus so much on empowering people," she said. The aim at FIA is to talk to people, educate and give options. "We support them no matter what they decide...with absolutely no judgement."
Sometimes the support comes in the form of getting to a doctor's appointment, or helping with food or housing. This year, with COVID, logistics has been an issue.
Although 80% of their families come from New York, FIA works around the country. Right now they are working with a couple coming from Illinois to pick up their child in New York. The logistics of quarantining and travel have been burdensome.
"We do a lot of texting, email and zoom," she said, adding that the "The frontline workers [at hospitals] have been amazing."
Overall, FIA reaches about 300 pregnant women a year and of those makes about 30 placements.
All of the placements are made under a Postadoption, or Open Adoption, Contact Agreement, meaning that both sets of parents leave open the possibility of contact after the adoption. In those cases, FIA may act as the mediator to help the process.
One video, "A Family Full of Love Brought Together through Open Adoption" highlights many of the benefits that Saltis sees in the process: happy children, families working together, and the awarness of what adoption can be. It was produced by Spectrum News, though many of the videos are produced in house or with their PR partner, Advokate.
According to press materials, the Human Rights Campaign has recognized FIA as a leader in supporting and serving LGBTQ youth and families.
Nov. 30: A few modest changes were made to this article for clarity and syntax.