Service Providers

Are you are a professional working with expectant parents who are facing unintended pregnancies, or would like to explore adoption? We would like to extend our services to you!

Open Adoption & Family Services (OA&FS) is a pro-choice, nonprofit adoption agency that has served the Pacific Northwest since 1985. We offer all-options pregnancy counseling and open adoption planning. Please contact us anytime at 1-800-772-1115 or information@openadopt.org to:

• To refer a client to OA&FS
• To receive a free DVD about our services
• Request OA&FS brochures
• Schedule a free on-site training for your staff!

We look forward to hearing from you and sharing information about our innovative model of choice, empowerment and relationship building.

About Our Services

All-Options Pregnancy Counseling

OA&FS receives client referrals from community partners, such as public health nurses, hospital social workers, Planned Parenthood staff, school counselors and other service providers in Oregon and Washington. Each year, we respond to hundreds of requests for all-options pregnancy counseling. Since 80% of the clients we serve do not plan adoptions we also provide expectant parents with referrals to local community resources.

Open Adoption Planning

OA&FS is a nonprofit agency licensed in Oregon and Washington. We are not religiously affiliated and we promote diversity and inclusion. Our mission is to cultivate openness in adoption. We are open adoption experts with over 25 years of experience. Since we were founded in 1985, we’ve completed over 1,200 successful open adoptions. The first generation of open adoptees placed by our agency are now adults who can speak directly about the benefits of open adoption. On average, we complete between 40 and 60 open adoptions per year, with a 10-year average of 49 placements per year. We have developed a collaborative relationship with the states of Oregon and Washington to offer open adoption as an alternative to state adoption.

Learn About Our Unique and Progressive Approach of Choice, Empowerment and Relationship Building

We provide free all-options pregnancy counseling to pregnant women and couples in Oregon and Washington:

• Our counselors empower expectant parents to explore all of their options: abortion, adoption and parenting.
• Our all-options pregnancy counseling is free and confidential.  Our counselors provide services in a supportive and non-biased atmosphere.
• Every pregnancy option is supported. Only 20% of expectant parents choose adoption. We provide community resources and referrals for expectant parents choosing parenting or abortion.
• Our highly-trained counselors are available 24/7 and are able to respond to urgent situations.

In our open adoption program:

• Expectant parents receive all-options pregnancy counseling. Those that chose adoption, receive ongoing counseling as they create their own open adoption vision.
  • All services available to birthmothers are also available to birthfathers.
  • Extended birthfamily members may also receive adoption-related counseling.
  • Birthparents may receive financial assistance for pregnancy-related expenses.
• Birthparents choose the adoptive parents from our diverse pool of carefully screened  prospective adoptive parents, who are seeking an open adoption.
  • All OA&FS prospective adoptive parents share a strong commitment to openness in adoption and desire to create a genuine and lifelong relationship with birthparents.
  • Birthparents choose from a large selection of families; our pool averages between 40-70 waiting families.
  • Birthparents choose from a diverse selection of families, including local families, out-of-state families, married couples, GLBTQ families and single-parents.
  • OA&FS prospective adoptive parents maintain diverse values, parenting-styles and interests, and are from a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities.
• We are a licensed adoption agency in Oregon and Washington with over 25 years of experience planning successful open adoptions. Our families are extremely well-prepared.
  • We pre-screen our waiting families according to state regulations before they enter our pool.
  • Our prospective adoptive parents prepare for their open adoption by completing our intensive seminar about building a lifelong open adoption relationship with birthparents. Our seminar meets the pre-adoption education requirements set by the state of Oregon.
  • We provide pre-adoption counseling and support to prospective adoptive parents to prepare them for this new relationship.
• Birthparents choose the level of openness they prefer.
  • With the support and guidance of an OA&FS counselor, birthparents and adoptive parents build a foundation for a healthy lifelong relationship.
  • Birthparents and adoptive parents create a legally enforceable open adoption agreement outlining ongoing visits and the exchange of letters and pictures.
  • On average, the open adoption agreements developed by OA&FS birth and adoptive families agree to three visits per year.
• After placement, birthparents have ongoing and unlimited access to support and counseling from OA&FS, with all services being free of charge.
  • Birthparents have access to lifelong adoption-related counseling whenever they need it at no cost to them.
  • Birthparents have access to the OA&FS peer mentorship network, where they may give and receive support and guidance with other OA&FS birthparents.
  • Birthparents are cherished members of our open adoption community and are invited to birthparent support groups, the annual OA&FS Birthmothers’ Retreat, and a variety of agency gatherings and events.

What Are The Benefits Of Open Adoption?

Ongoing contact enables birthparents to see for themselves that their child is thriving in the adoptive family’s home. This helps them feel at peace with their open adoption decision.

Knowing that the birthparents fully support the adoption, adoptive parents feel secure in welcoming the birthparents into their lives. And, most importantly, the open relationship gives the child direct access to information about their history and support from their birthparents. This allows for the healthy development of the child’s sense of identity and self-esteem.

Open Adoption As An Alternative To State Adoption

When an infant is removed from her mother’s care and placed into foster care, it’s a difficult and stressful experience for everyone involved. Many of the pregnant and parenting moms you work with, who are struggling with issues related to addiction, domestic violence, homelessness or mental illness, are also at high risk of losing custody of their child to the state.

We’re excited to announce that the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) issued a memorandum on November 15, 2010 that clarifies a policy for child welfare workers whose clients are at risk of losing their parental rights. Now there is a viable alternative to state adoption that allows high-risk moms, with children up to the age of 1.5, to plan an open adoption pro-actively through a private adoption agency.

Open Adoption & Family Services (OA&FS) can bring its open adoption model to parents who have previously had very few adoption options and provide an alternative track before their parental rights are terminated in court. If you would like copies of the brochure we've created about this option for clients at risk of losing their parental rights, please let us know.

Our agency’s adoption services are rooted in choice, empowerment and relationship building. At OA&FS, women are empowered to choose adoptive parents, form a close relationship with them and to create a legally enforceable contract for ongoing visits. It may be vital to the future of the moms you work with to know about and to be able to access, this viable alternative for at-risk moms with children up to the age of 1.5 years old. Learn more about this alternative in this Oregon Department of Human Services memorandum (PDF) clarifying policy for DHS caseworkers with clients who wish to explore adoption. We would welcome the opportunity to share more about this viable option with your staff. Feel free to contact us to set up a free presentation.

“What a beautiful program. This addresses the child’s need to know that their birthparents are okay by having an ongoing relationship with them. That will relieve a huge burden for these kids.” - DHS Caseworker

“The termination hearing for the birthmom is humiliating and should be avoided at all cost. This is an excellent alternative.” - DHS Supervisor

“I have worked with moms who created open adoption plans with OA&FS prior to DHS involvement. This has been very rewarding for both the mom and the child, who doesn’t have to enter the foster care system.” – Medical Social Worker

“I met with a mother who wanted ongoing contact with her child and to plan an adoption outside of her family. As DHS is legally required to search for relative placements, she chose a family through OA&FS. They responded quickly and sensitively to her needs.” - Child Protective Services Worker