Family & Adoption Services

Catholic Charities began in the Archdiocese of Newark in 1903 when a group of lay Roman Catholics founded the Catholic Children's Aid Society of New Jersey, the predecessor of our current Family and Adoption Program. The organization was the first society for the prevention of cruelty to children established by a Catholic diocese in the United States, and it was the second to begin placing Catholic orphan children in private Catholic homes for the purpose of adoption. In 1927, 15 orphanages collaborated with the Children's Aid Society to form Associated Catholic Charities, which provided organized family services that included child welfare.

Catholic Charities has been in the forefront of adoption policies and procedures, utilizing best practice standards to implement change. Orphanages no longer exist in the United States and infant domestic adoptions have decreased. At the same time, international programs have increased and children living in orphanages in other part of the world are finding loving families through the efforts of Catholic Charities.

Today, our full service Family and Adoption Department provides:

• Pregnancy Counseling and preparation for parenting or adoption placement
• Domestic Adoption home studies and placement of infants
• International Adoption home studies and referrals to placing agencies
• Post-Placement services for domestic and international adoptions
• Re-adoption services for international adoptions
• Domestic adoption Search and Reunion Services for Catholic Charities adoptees and their birth parents

Catholic Charities
touches more than
80,000 lives annually.