14th Annual Jordan’s Furniture Walk/Run for  Adoption benefiting MARE

Jordan’s Furniture Walk/Run for Adoption benefiting MARE is Sunday, May 21, 2023, at Jordan’s Furniture in Taunton. Each year, this event brings together more than 500 participants, 75 volunteers, and 1,000 supporters to make a difference in the lives of children and teens in foster care.

All the funds raised from the Jordan’s Furniture Walk/Run for Adoption support MARE’s work to help children and teens in foster care find adoptive homes. Last year, we raised over $100,000. In 2023, we’re hoping to surpass this goal to help even more youth find a safe, loving place to call home.

To make that goal a reality, we’re asking you to join us by lacing up your sneakers, volunteering your time, or supporting the cause as one of our event sponsors.

About MARE

The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc. (MARE) finds adoptive homes for vulnerable children and teens in foster care. MARE works with the Commonwealth’s Department of Children & Families and its contracted agencies to register each child that cannot be reunited with his or her birth family and recruit families that meet an individual child’s needs. Since 1957, MARE has helped more than 7,400 children join nurturing, stable homes through its history of innovative programming.

Why MARE is Necessary

Right this moment, there are more than 8,100 children in the foster care system in Massachusetts. These children have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect and to prevent future harm. Currently, 1,160 kids in Massachusetts foster care have a goal of adoption but no family member or identified resource who has come forward to offer permanency. These are the children and teens MARE serves.

These children face the prospect of growing up in foster care, eventually aging out of the system with no supports. Most children enter foster care with medical, mental health, and/or developmental needs. All children in foster care have experienced trauma of some type, which can affect brain development and lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, emotional and behavioral challenges, and physical and/or cognitive disabilities. Additionally, there are many children in foster care with disabilities ranging from autism to cerebral palsy. The stress and instability of life in foster care take an additional physical and psychological toll. Some children live in as many as 12-15 foster homes before they turn 18.

Permanency -- a lifelong familial connection -- is vital to avoid disparities in income, education, employment, and health. Without MARE, many of the children and teens in foster care age out before finding a family OR would wait much longer for an adoptive home.

What MARE Does

MARE's work is focused on a 2-pronged approach of targeted recruitment of families for specific waiting children and helping families who begin the adoption process reach successful conclusions. Child Services engages in child-specific recruitment, finding an adoptive family to match a particular child’s needs; Family Support Services advises families interested in adoption and provides assistance to those in the process.  As of February 1st, 2023, there are 568 children waiting on MARE’s caseload.

Learn more about how you can support adoption from foster care at walk.mareinc.org.