Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange - MARE

The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) was founded in 1957 to find “a permanent place to call home” for children and teens in foster care in Massachusetts, including sibling groups and children who are traditionally harder to place. We do this by recruiting, educating, supporting and advocating for families throughout the adoption process. MARE was one of the first five adoption exchanges in the United States, and the only one established under private auspices with trustees from both the private and public sectors of adoption. MARE was then, and is now, the bridge between the state’s Department of Children & Families, private adoption agencies, and adults interested in adoption. We recruit, educate, support and advocate for families throughout the adoption process while targeting recruitment efforts to attract potential parents for specific waiting children. We are the Commonwealth’s central clearinghouse for adoption information and referral, and work to identify potential matches between children and families. Our goal is to find a safe, nurturing permanent family for every child in Massachusetts foster care who cannot be reunited with his/her birth family. MARE has helped more than 6,300 children join nurturing, stable homes through its history of innovative programming.