Press releases
Adoption website nominated for national award
Issued: 28 April 2008
Be My Parent, the family finding website run by the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF), has been nominated for a national award for helping to improve the lives of looked after children.
The eWell–Being Awards are run by SustainIT and seek to demonstrate how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can help improve people’s lives and reduce our impact on the environment. BAAF will be competing in the Improving Public Services category against three others.
Be My Parent began in 1980 as a folder featuring photographs and brief profile details of children waiting for adoptive and permanent foster families. Over time it evolved into a black and white newspaper, published six times a year, and then became a monthly, full–colour publication covering the whole of the UK.
In 2007 a website to accompany the newspaper was launched. Online each child has a dedicated page with a detailed description of personality and needs. As well as photos there are video and audio clips of the children and images of their artwork.
Mo O’Reilly, Director of Child Placement Services at BAAF said: “We are delighted that Be My Parent has been considered for a national award. The website has really helped to communicate the essence of the child and bring them to life on screen. We feel that this type of family finding service is the way forward.”
Since the launch of website there have been 75,000 unique views and signed up 2,500 subscribers. In 2006/2007 Be My Parent placed 180 children with adoptive or long term foster families. For more information visit www.bemyparent.org.uk
Notes to editors:
- For more information, please call BAAF press office on 020 7421 2632/3 or email esther.freeman@baaf.org.uk. For out of hours enquiries, call the press office mobile on 07767 444 589.
- BAAF is one of the UK’s leading charities for children in care. We provide services to meet the needs of some of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people. In 2006/2007 we helped place 486 children through Be My Parent and the Adoption Register, sold 42,500 books on adoption and fostering, and ran 2,000 workshops and training units UK-wide.
|
