Mission 

Amara partners with birth, foster, and adoptive parents to create and support stable, loving homes for vulnerable children.

History

Amara was founded in 1921 as a traditional orphanage called Medina Baby Home. As research showed children developed best with individual care, Amara began placing children in private homes, a precursor to foster care. Eventually, the organization became Medina Children's Services.

In the 1940s as the number of children in foster care increased, Amara developed programs to find homes for older children, sibling groups, and minority children. Amara was one of the first organizations in the country to coordinate trans-racial, single parent, and gay and lesbian adoptions. We focus and pride ourselves on programs providing the highest levels of care and support:

• Adoption of children from in foster care and infants relinquished directly to Amara.
• Pregnancy Counseling for women/birth parents facing an unintended pregnancy. We offer free, nonjudgmental, confidential support and complete information regarding their choices.

Amara believes there is no substitute for strong families to ensure children grow up to be healthy, capable adults. We are proud to offer our services to everyone, regardless of marital status, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, home ownership, income, or education.

Vision

Inspired by our new strategic plan, Amara is embarking on a bold quest to accomplish our vision—A Home for Every Child.  Through this detailed plan, we intend to:

• By 2010, place twice as many children from foster care into adoptive homes as in 2007
• Focus on children who are traditionally harder to place—sibling groups, older children, and children of color
• Take an active role in launching a community-wide movement for positive change in the way the community perceives and cares for children in foster care

To affect the change necessary to mitigate the statewide foster care crisis, we will create and implement a compelling communications plan to challenge misconceptions and help make children in foster care a community concern and priority. We will play a proactive role to gather a community coalition of all agencies serving foster children—including the State—to work together to improve the quality of foster care in Washington.  

Visit Get Involved to learn more about how you can help Amara find loving homes for vulnerable children in our community.