This week beginning Monday 3rd March 2025 sees the return of LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week, organised by charity New Family Social. ARC Adoption is proud to join adoption agencies from around the UK in supporting the annual campaign.

The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘Change lives in ‘25’ – encouraging more LGBTQ+ people to come forward to adopt, and help change the lives of a growing number of children in foster care and in need of a permanent loving family. 

An adopter’s experience – Q and A with Simon and Jeff

ARC Adoption has supported many LGBTQ+ families to adopt, including Simon and Jeff who adopted their little boy in 2023. For LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week they kindly answered some questions for us about their experience of adopting, and below is a just little snapshot of what they had to share. Click here to read the rest of their interview. 

“At first, it’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster as your world quickly changes overnight. We felt like we had to be a perfect version of ourselves, before realising that no-one is perfect, and we were allowed to make mistakes as new parents and learn from them. Eventually everything just seems to fit into place like a jigsaw. Our little boy is our world, and we love our little family - life is beautiful.”

Join us at an information event 

This month we are hosting two information events where people can find out more about adopting with our support. In addition to the information shared by our team, we have parents joining us at both events, who adopted as part of a same sex couple, who will talk about their experience of adopting and help answer questions.

• Virtual Information Event, Thursday 6th March at 6pm
• In-person Information Event in Sunderland, Wednesday 12th March at 6pm

If you are interested in attending one of the upcoming dates, information on both as well as the links to register for them, can be found on our events page here.

In 2024, almost a third of the people who started the adoption process with ARC Adoption identified as LGBTQ+ and we’d like to assure people that they will receive a warm welcome from our team. Anyone enquiring with us will be offered an informal chat with an experienced social worker who can provide information and answer questions to help people understand if adoption is right for them, or whether it is the right time in their life to start the process. 

New Family Social are also hosting webinars and releasing podcasts this week related to LGBTQ+ adoption and fostering – head to their website for more details.

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We hope you find the information shared during LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week useful and inspiring! If you’d like to take the next step and have a chat with our friendly team, please complete our enquiry form here. We’d be delighted to answer your questions.