Community engagement
Keep up to date with our community projects and how you can get involved.
Yorkshire Adoption Agency partners with SACMHA to strengthen adoption awareness in Sheffield’s Black communities
Yorkshire Adoption Agency (YAA) has launched a new partnership with SACMHA Health & Social Care, a respected Sheffield-based organisation serving African, Caribbean and Black communities, to increase conversations and awareness of adoption across the city.
Through this collaboration, SACMHA’s specialist link workers will help create safe spaces to have honest, reflective and open conversations about adoption. They will play a central role in sharing accurate information, dispelling myths, and opening up safe, accessible pathways for individuals and families who may be considering adoption. More than that, they will help open an important space for community dialogue on how we make adoption processes more inclusive.
The partnership forms part of YAA’s wider Community Engagement Project, created to ensure that all communities—including those historically underrepresented in adoption—have equitable access to information, inclusive support, and opportunities to explore adoption at a pace that feels right for them.
Black children remain disproportionately represented in the care system nationally and often wait longer for adoptive families. YAA and SACMHA are working together to reduce these inequalities by building trust, increasing visibility, and empowering communities with the space talk more about adoption, and to tell us what they need us to do better.
As part of the partnership, SACMHA link workers will:
- Create safer spaces for open, honest conversations around adoption.
- Provide inclusive, practical, and accurate information at a pace that suits each individual.
- Help reduce the stigma around adoption.
- Make sure no one feels alone while exploring adoption.
“Our link workers are dedicated to supporting families and individuals in ways that honour their culture, identity and lived experiences. By partnering with YAA, we can help challenge misconceptions and bring adoption conversations into trusted community spaces.”
Upcoming events
- Fraternal of Black Majority Churches Event (16 May) – Community outreach and engagement.
“I for one feel it is very important when working with an organisation to take a moment to look around and see how much that organisation looks like me and welcomes me.
This is one of the many reasons why I value my work as a Trustee for the Yorkshire Adoption Agency so much. I see me and I hear my voice reflected in the amazing team and their amazing work.”
About the project
This project will focus on raising awareness of adoption, while also engaging with black communities to build relationships, improving partnership and ensuring we continue to build an inclusive service for everyone.
The project is led by Skye, a dual-heritage adopter and experienced professional in social research and inclusive practice. As YAA’s first-ever Community In-Reach Worker, Skye draws on her lived experience and professional background to support Black adopters throughout their adoption journey.
Skye will be there every step of the way to:
- Offer personalised support and guidance for black and dual heritage adopters, and prospective adopters
- Provide a safe and welcoming space to reflect on personal experiences
- Help adopters feel confident, heard, and understood as they move through the process
- Work with social workers in the agency to ensure an inclusive and anti-racist service for all
“Being an adopter of dual heritage myself, I understand the importance of having support that respects your identity and experiences.”
Skye will also work to build relationships with communities and organisations across Yorkshire, and parts of the Midlands. This can include:
- Attending and talking at events, community groups, and team meetings
- Producing communications and information content
- Building partnerships
Do get in touch if you would like to talk to Skye about building a partnership, or attending an event with or for your organisation or community- details below.
Why this matters
Black and mixed-heritage children wait, on average, 1.5 to 2 years longer to be adopted than their white peers. They are also less likely to be adopted at all. We also know that, despite motivation amongst Black people to adopt, Black prospective adopters are more likely to drop out of the process, we believe this is at least partially due to unequal experiences of the process.
This project is designed to address these disparities by:
- Raising awareness of adoption within communities
- Providing guidance tailored to cultural needs
- Delivering co-design and community partnership in order to report on, and remove barriers related to race and systemic bias within our own service (and beyond)
- Creating opportunities for listening, learning and peer support among Black adopters
“It is a travesty that Black children wait longer for adoption. Our communities can and do make a huge difference. This project is a step toward real change.”
Join our Steering Group
The Steering Group that support YAA’s community engagement project, play a central role in shaping this project—ensuring that decisions, priorities and approaches are rooted in lived experience and community insight.
Steering Group membership is open to people who:
- Are part of a local Black community within Sheffield, or the wider region.
- Identify as Black African, Black Caribbean, or Mixed Heritage including Black African or Caribbean heritage.
- Have understanding, awareness or lived experience of the systemic issues affecting Black communities, especially in Sheffield.
- Bring relevant insight, whether through lived experience, professional experience, activism, community work, leadership or cultural knowledge.
- Are committed to inclusive, compassionate and respectful engagement.
Members may or may not be part of community organisations—we are equally keen to include people whose voices are seldom heard. We are particularly keen to hear from Black adopters and adoptees.
Download the full role description here.
For any questions or an informal chat, please contact Skye via info@yorkshireadoptionagency.org.uk
Getting in touch
If you are thinking about adoption or would like to learn more about how this project can support you:
- Contact Skye directly; skye@yorkshireadoptionagency.org.uk or by email us
- Visit our Global Majorities | Yorkshire Adoption Agency
- Learn more about YAA’s lifelong adoption support and our outstanding training.
We pride ourselves on our communication with our families and review the feedback we receive to ensure our standards stay high with the flexibility to improve wherever possible.
Resources & information
Podcasts for the community
The Adoption Shared – Black Voices series of podcasts focus on adoption in the Black community.
The podcasts are hosted by Eddie Elliott for We Are Family and in partnership with Adopt London. Adoptive parents, people who have been adopted and adoption professionals share their experiences in this unique series. Black Voices podcasts – sharing the joys and challenges of adoption in the Black community.
Black Ballad, a UK based lifestyle initiative for Black women host this podcast featuring five Black British women all talking about adoption, each from their own perspective.
This podcast – The Realities of the Adoption Process and how we can better centre Adoptees – explores what it is like adopting a child, and how an adult adoptee wants to ensure the focus remains on the children and people who are adopted. This recording is with thanks to all the strong women who enabled this podcast to take place, from the initial concept in partnership with Adopt London, to our amazing speakers, right through to the production team at Black Ballad.
Would your workplace be willing to help raise awareness about adoption?
- Our goal is to create a space where modern adoption can be talked about as it never has been.
- We want to raise awareness of the process and why adoption is a positive choice to having a family.
Call 01302 638337 or email info@yorkshireadoptionagency.org.uk to register your interest for a Brunch with YAA!
