Prospective Rotherham adopters urged to come forward

A major multi media advertising campaign, including TV, outdoor press, radio, online and a touring ‘pop-up’ living room roadshow will launch on Monday February 17, as part of the new Being Family initiative.

Being Family is a new initiative by the Yorkshire and Humber Adoption Consortium supported by Andrew Barton, celebrity hairdresser, adopted person and Yorkshire man. The Being Family campaign is based around a storytelling approach which seeks to reassure potential adopter's anxieties in relation to the adoption process and dispel a range of common myths around people's eligibility to adopt.

At the heart of the campaign sits the www.beingfamily.co.uk interactive website where people can find out more about adopting in Yorkshire and Humber, ask questions and request an information pack. A 30 second TV advert will also run on ITV Yorkshire, raising awareness and encouraging people to get in touch. This will be supported by advertising at railway stations and hand illustrated press and radio adverts.

Andrew Barton said: “I’m proud to have been adopted as a child and strongly believe without the loving support of my parents and family I may not have become the man that I am today. Of course there are always questions around birth, heritage and the differences we have as a family but the love and care I received from my family is all I really needed. I relish conversations around nature or nurture and know that my family are mine regardless of nature. It saddens me that so many children here in the UK are waiting for new families and am delighted to add my voice to creating awareness for these children in my work by supporting this important campaign.”

Nic Haughton, manager at the Yorkshire and Humber Adoption Consortium, who is leading the campaign, said: “The aim of the new Yorkshire and Humber Adoption Day is to encourage more potential adopters across Yorkshire and Humber to come forward and think about adoption. Our unique multi channelled advertising campaign which is designed to maximise awareness of our Being Family initiative. We want to bust some of the myths about adoption, about age, marital status and income levels. We want people to think “maybe I could do that” rather than rule themselves out.

“We have over 850 children from the Yorkshire and Humber region waiting to be matched with approved adopters  right now and the numbers are growing, Please do visit our ‘pop-up’ road show at the White Rose Shopping Centre to have a chat and take away some information to find out how thoroughly rewarding adopting is.”

Adoption staff will invite shoppers to describe what “family” means to them and adopters will be on hand to talk about their experience of adoption. This is the first of nine ‘'pop-up’ road show events, to take place across the regions over the coming months. For further information please go to www.beingfamily.co.uk or @being_family.

Across the Yorkshire and Humber region there has been a rise year on year in the number of children who need new families. Yorkshire and Humberside Adoption Consortium have estimated that 850 children  need adoptive families this year, with at least this number of new children each year, so there is a great need to recruit more approved adopters across the region.

It’s the same picture nationally with the Department of Education (DfE) reporting there are approximately 6,600 children awaiting adoption and only 1,800 approved adopters waiting for a child.