Post Adoption Contact Agreement (PACA) Facilitation & Mediation through The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center

For more information about PACA Facilitation & Mediation through The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center Please contact the Adoption Department at 412-441-4884 or swanservices@chomepgh.org.

5324 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224 phone: 41 2 .441.4884 toll free: 1.800.96 1.7704 fax: 41 2 .44 1. 5323 e-mail: swanservices@chomepgh.org www.childrenshomepgh.org www.facebook.com/chomepghadopt

WHAT IS A POST ADOPTION CONTACT AGREEMENT? Act 101 of 2010 provides for a voluntary, legally enforceable Post Adoption

WHY CHOOSE

Contact Agreement (PACA). In these agreements, adoptive parent(s) and

THE CHILDREN’S HOME OF PITTSBURGH?

birth relatives agree to specific types of ongoing contact or communication

The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh has been facilitating open

in the forms of letters, pictures, email, telephone conversations, text

adoptions for over 30 years. Our knowledgeable PACA mediators are

messages, or visitation. The foremost consideration of the agreement is

Master’s level professionals with extensive experience in providing

the best interest of the child; any agreement reached must be approved

empathic and supportive services to both birth and adoptive families.

by the court prior to the adoption’s finalization.

Our agency specializes in open adoption, and we have been facilitating PACA agreements since their implementation in 2011. Additionally, our staff was actively involved on one of the committees with the Office of Children, Youth, and Families that drafted Act 101. As a

WHY IS FACILITATION NECESSARY? Act 101 of 2010 requires the facilitation of a PACA by a neutral third party. This requirement exists so that no party feels coerced or pressured during the development of the agreement. The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh’s social workers facilitate joint sessions with the adoptive parent(s) and birth relatives to ensure that everyone involved agrees to the specified openness arrangements; if the child is age 12 or older, the child is included in these sessions and must also agree to the specified ongoing contact. Agreements are generally reached during one session, but further sessions can be completed if necessary.

Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) affiliate, the social workers at The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh have been able to bridge their knowledge, skills, and experience to working with birth, foster, and adoptive families in the foster care system as they look toward achieving and maintaining permanency.

ABOUT THE CHILDREN’S HOME OF PITTSBURGH The Children's Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center is an independent non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the health and well-being of infants and children through services which establish and strengthen the family. The Adoption Program was

HOW CAN A MEDIATOR HELP? The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh uses only trained mediators to complete the PACA facilitation process in order to promote discussion and voluntary decision-making. The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh’s

founded in 1893. The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh originally began as a private infant adoption agency and became a SWAN affiliate in 2012. Our mediators are trained through The Center for Victims, Dialogue and Mediation Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

mediators focus on allowing the adoptive parent(s) and birth relatives to develop their own solutions while the mediator stays impartial. The session itself remains confidential, and the mediator does not counsel, critique, or represent any party to the agreement. The focus of the mediator remains on having a constructive meeting without exerting any influence on the parties. Our mediators are able to travel throughout Western Pennsylvania with our own notary, and mediation sessions are best conducted in a private room in a neutral location such as a library, restaurant, or office space in the local community.

The Children’s Home’s Adoption Program is able to provide PACA Facilitation & Mediation through SWAN Units of Service.