Adoption charity PACT (Parents And Children Together) is urgently appealing for people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities to consider adoption.
PACT, which offers outstanding Ofsted-rated adoption services to families across the south-east of England, is one of the leading independent adoption charities in the country. Last year the charity helped transform the lives of 82 children by finding them their forever families.
With more than 2,000 children waiting to be adopted, PACT specialises in finding secure and loving homes for priority children, including those of Black and Minority Ethnic heritage, who often face the longest wait for their forever family. PACT adopters can be couples or single people, of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. It is particularly looking for adopters of Black Caribbean, African or dual heritage.
PACT’s Chief Executive, Jan Fishwick OBE, said: “As a child, being able to identify with your main care provider, visually, culturally, historically and emotionally, will ultimately improve the chances of a more stable and enriched childhood. We are really keen to do what we can to reduce the time that children of BME heritage have to wait for their forever family. Please do get in touch if you would like to find out more about adopting with PACT.”
Marcia, who is Black British with a Guyanese/Jamaican family heritage, and her husband Ian, who was born in Jamaica, adopted two sisters of Caribbean family heritage through PACT in October 2015.
“We chose to adopt through PACT because it was an independent adoption agency, which meant it wasn’t restricted to working within local authority boundaries but could search the country for the right children for us.
“We also liked the support that PACT promised its families. We felt empowered by PACT from the start, particularly from our social worker, and all the training and parenting courses we received were really excellent.
“Meeting the girls for the first time was amazing. I had thought they might take a while to get used to us, but they ran up calling us Mummy and Daddy. There was this moment of realisation that this is really happening.
“I grew up in this county, but I went to a school where I was one of only four Black children and I vividly remember feeling that there is no-one else here who looks like me, which is not nice especially when you’re 11 or 12 and you don’t want to be different from your friends. For me, I am absolutely determined to do what I can to make my girls proud of who they are, and I know I can help them with that.”
