Unlock the Secret to More Adoptions: AI Tool Revealed by AP Investigation
Thea Ramirez, a former social worker, has created a tool powered by artificial intelligence that she claims assists social service agencies in identifying the most suitable adoptive parents for the most vulnerable children in the country.
But an Associated Press investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results in states where it has been used, raising questions about AI’s ability to solve such enduring human problems.
Two states abandoned the tool and adopted only a few at the end of the initial pilot phase. Social workers in Florida, Georgia and Virginia told the AP that Family-Match was not helpful and often led them to unwanted families. Agencies in Florida, on the other hand, reported a more positive experience with the algorithm, saying it helped them tap into a wider pool of potential parents.
Ramirez declined interview requests, but said in an email that “Family-Match is a valuable tool and useful to users who actively use it to support recruiting.”
Here are some excerpts from the study:
ROOTED IN FAITH
Ramirez, from Brunswick, Georgia, where her nonprofit is also based, was inspired to build a website to connect prospective adoptive parents with mothers who are giving their babies up for adoption.
Ramirez markets her website to anti-abortion counseling centers that seek to persuade women to terminate their pregnancies.
“Could we make Roe v. Wade obsolete by raising awareness about adoption? I think so,” Ramirez wrote in a 2012 blog post on his website. Ramirez said in an email that Family-Match is not affiliated with the program for mothers with unwanted pregnancies.
EXCITED FOR MACHINE TURNING
Ramirez recruited researcher Gian Gonzaga and asked if he could work with him to create a match-based adoption match to help child welfare agencies find adoptive parents for foster children. Gonzaga had previously managed the algorithms that boosted online dating site harmony.
“I was more excited about the project than anything I’ve heard in my entire career,” Gonzaga said in a Family-Match promotional video posted to YouTube.
Gonzaga eventually joined the board of Ramirez’s nonprofit Adoptio-Share.
Gonzaga, who worked with his wife Heather Setrakian on harmony and then the Family-Match algorithm, relayed questions to Ramirez. Setrakian said he is very proud of his years of work developing the Family-Match model.
An Eharmony spokesperson said the company had nothing to do with Family-Match and called the couple “just former employees.”
RIGHT LOBBYING
Former First Lady Melania Trump in the offices of the governors of Georgia and Virginia, Ramirez has worked with land deals.
Officials in Virginia and Georgia abandoned Family-Match after their experiment yielded only one or two adoptions a year. Tennessee said they killed the pilot before it was deployed due to technical issues.
Months after Georgia pulled out of Family-Match, Ramirez met with a staffer in Gov. Brian Kemp’s office and appeared at a state hearing to ask for $250,000 to fund the statewide expansion.
The state reversed course and signed a new agreement in July to continue using the technology. Adoption-Share allows Georgia to use Family-Match for free, a state official said.
BRUSHES DIFFERENT
Ramirez has also received support from public figures.
In New York, he rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange with the then Miss Utah USA beauty queen. In Florida, Ramirez initially gave away his tool for free, thanks to a grant from the Selfless Love Foundation of Jupiter, Florida, founded by Ed Brown, the former CEO of Patrón tequila, and his wife, the former Ashley Brown. – role model and advocate for foster children.
The Browns raise funds for the foundation’s causes at an annual Palm Beach-area gala that has highlighted the work of Adoption-Share. Selfless Love Foundation marketing director Shelli Lockhart said Adoptio-Share’s grant ended in October 2022 and that the foundation was “so proud of the work we did together” to increase adoptions, but declined to elaborate on why the grant ended.
With charitable dollars drying up, the state government picked up the tab and awarded Adoptio-Share a $350,000 contract last month.
In May, Family-Match was selected to benefit then-St. Adoption-Share press release said Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright sought to help the organization grow “to meet the urgent need for foster and adoptive families in Missouri.” Ramirez posed for photos on the baseball field next to Darrell Missey, director of the Missouri Department of Children, who was considering Adoption-Share’s proposal.
TEST OUT: FLORIDA
Ramirez has highlighted the tool’s spread to Florida’s privatized child welfare system as he has sought to denounce charitable support and new business in New York and Delaware.
This year, Adoption-Share won a contract with the Florida Department of Health to build an algorithm for public health officials to focus on children with the most serious medical needs and disabilities who may never be able to live independently. The deal marks a significant expansion beyond Adoption Share’s work with child welfare agencies, as medically fragile children may need lifelong caregivers.
“The power dynamic is different because the child can’t just leave,” said Bonni Goodwin, a child welfare specialist at the University of Oklahoma. “The vulnerability component is growing.”
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