Pennsylvania Launches Adoption Mobile Website

HARRISBURG, Pa., March 27, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania today launched one of the nation's first adoption mobile websites, providing easier access for those looking to adopt one of the nearly 2,500 children waiting for a permanent home. 

Thirty-eight percent of all visits to Pennsylvania's Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) website, adoptpakids.org, come from mobile devices. With the new mobile site, potential adoptive families who visit adoptpakids.org on their smartphone will automatically be directed to the new mobile site.

"People are no longer limited to using their personal desktop computers anymore; instead, they are using their smartphones and tablets to access information," Department of Public Welfare Acting Secretary Bev Mackereth said. "Finding a loving and caring home for children who have a goal of permanency can be a long process, and by creating the adoption mobile website we are making it easier for potential families to view children who deserve a forever home."

Accessing the adoption website from anywhere anytime provides convenience to both potential families and case workers. It offers search capabilities for viewing updated and newly added adoption profiles, a photo album of children waiting to be adopted, and information on post-permanency services and how to become a foster or adoptive parent.

SWAN is a broad-based cooperative effort and centralized information and facilitation service funded and overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. The network includes county children and youth agencies; juvenile court judges; foster and adoptive parents; private adoption agencies; the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange; and many others working together on behalf of children who need permanent homes.

The SWAN program serves children in the custody of county children and youth agencies and supports their efforts in expediting permanency services.  

For more information on SWAN visit www.adoptpakids.org, call 1-800-585-SWAN (7926) or "like" SWAN on Facebook.

Media contact: Carey Miller and Yvonne Murphy, 717-425-7606

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare