Live-streamed Adoption Ceremony Piques Intererst in Adopting, Fostering

Problem: How to get more families and individuals interested in adopting children.

Solution: Upgrade the production values of the livestream the county’s annual Mass Adoption Ceremony to generate more interest.

It was the “yay” heard ‘round the world, or at least it could have been thanks to the internet.

That’s what 3-year-old Aubreanna Myers, arms raised in victory, exclaimed when a Hamilton County, Ohio judge said that she and her sister, Catherine, were “here today to be adopted.”

On Nov. 4, they were among 15 children adopted by seven families who agreed to have their adoptions finalized “live” online as part of Hamilton County Job & Family Services (JFS) annual Mass Adoption Ceremony. All of the families had previously fostered their adoptees.

“We deal with a lot of heartache and despair through the year trying to help children who are victims of abuse and neglect,” said JFS Director Moira Weir, “and this is one time when we get to put that aside and really celebrate the power of family. Especially for the teens, who may have been waiting years and spent time in several different placements — finding a ‘forever family’ means so much.”

JFS began live-streaming the event four years ago in an effort to accomplish two things: publicize the need for adoptive and foster families, and to enable loved ones afar to share in the moment.

Brian Gregg, a spokesman for JFS, said before last year, the video was done “on the cheap.” In 2015, the department kicked up a notch with a more professional, multi-camera video presentation. And the results were significant.

Last year, 200 people viewed the live stream — including someone living abroad — and there were nearly 1,000 hits on family services’ website, hckids.org. On an average day, the site gets about 200 visitors.

Requests for information about specific children averaged fewer than 45 per month before the Mass Adoption Livestream, county officials said. March 2016 saw a new peak in interest with 171 requests, a 280 percent increase. Requests for general information, which used to average about eight per month, peaked at 13 in March, a 73 percent increase, Weir and Gregg said.

Hamilton County investigates more than 5,000 reports of child abuse and neglect each year. On any given day, there are about 900 children in Hamilton County who are in foster care, Weir said. “Before this event, we were averaging less than two web visitors per month per available child.”

Research, according to Weir, shows it takes about 10 “touches” or interactions before a person who’s interested in adopting or fostering a child takes steps towards doing so. More than 350 people viewed this year’s livestream, Gregg said, and at least 114 watched the archived video, according to preliminary figures.

It cost about $3,100 to hire a film crew and portable streaming studio, Gregg said, money that came out of JFS promotions budget.

“While visiting hckids.org alone may not lead to an adoption,” Weir said, “each visit encourages a prospective parent to look a little deeper, both online and in their heart, into the idea.”

It can be personally rewarding to witness the mass-adoption event, Weir added. “You get to see the results our staff works so hard to get to this point.

“It also helps remind some of us on those days when the job’s kind of difficult, this is the end project and you get to see a lot of happiness, she said. “I love the fact that the community has rallied around it. We get lots of positive media from this which helps us raise awareness.”

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