SWAN Connect Facilitated by PAE and SWAN Helpline

The Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange (PAE) and the SWAN Helpline work together with county children and youth agencies and affiliate agencies to bridge the gap between waiting children and waiting approved adoptive families.

The Process

1. PAE coordinators work directly with a child's caseworker to get additional details about the child not available on their CY130 forms.
2. Approved adoptive families call the SWAN Helpline to ask about any child listed on www.adoptpakids.org.
3. That additional information about the child is then reviewed with the resource family.
4. If a family remains interested in a particular child after learning that additional information, PAE will notify the child’s worker of the family’s interest. 

The SWAN Helpline’s role is to provide in-depth information about available children to families with a completed approved family profile who are registered with PAE.  This process promotes family engagement and facilitates communication.

PAE coordinators carry a caseload of children from their assigned region.  They follow the status of each family referral given to them by SWAN Helpline until a family is selected or not selected for a child.  They work with county and child specific recruitment workers to assure that in-depth information on each child is available to resource families.

Caseworkers can help by keeping information about all children current with PAE.  Writing strong, strength-based narratives and updating a child’s picture are a key to this process.  Quickly responding to emails from the SWAN Helpline and notifying them about a family’s current status also helps to keep the process working smoothly. 

Critical to the success of the Seamless System, affiliate agencies should routinely update information about a family’s availability with PAE.  Families approved for matching will continue to receive matches about waiting children until PAE is otherwise informed.

Immediately responding to requests from child workers when a family profile is requested helps keep the system moving.  Provide the family profile to the child’s worker consistent with the SWAN Benchmarks.   

1. Half of the 1,200 waiting families in PA are willing to take children age 10 and older.
2. About 400 children currently registered with PAE need a permanent resource.
3. 72% of the children who need a resource are age 10 or older.
4. 62% of the waiting children are male.

5. Forty three percent of Pennsylvania's waiting children are African American, 42% Caucasian and 13% Hispanic.

The Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange (PAE) and the SWAN Helpline work together with county children and youth agencies and affiliate agencies to bridge the gap between waiting children and waiting approved adoptive families.