Over a decade ago Thea Ramirez a former social worker and currently married to a Georgian pastor set out to reduce abortions by promoting adoption of unwanted children to do this she created a website that connected pregnant women with potential adoptees. But next she wanted to connect children with no relatives to be adopted more easily because out of 50,000 adopted children nationwide only 5,000 of these kids were adopted by people they had no previous connection with.
To achieve this Ramirez partnered with Gian Gonzaga, a research scientist who had previously worked with eharmony to create an adoption site that would match kids and parents up using the same algorithms called Family Match. After this Ramirez started going around the U.S showing Family Match to state officials and it works by having adults looking to adopt answer a survey and then a list is made for each child with the top parents depending on their score then social workers can sort through it.
A test in Virginia that lasted 2 years yielded only one successful adoption with the Virginia Department of Social Services stating that Family Match had not been effective. Virginia social workers also said that all the children were being matched with the same group of adoptees. Many social workers also questioned the authenticity of the survey since most of the parents were not fit for taking care of the adopted children. But Jenn Petion the president of the organization that handles adoptions in Jacksonville said that the app allowed social workers to make better decisions and her agency, Family Support Services declined to provide the statistics. While in Georgia Family match gathered data about if the adopted children had a criminal record, been sexually abused or identified as part of the LGBTQIA this information is usually restricted inside the child protective service case files.
