Adoption Excellence Awards Presented

HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., presents Diane Granito of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department and founder of the Heart Gallery exhibit with an Adoption Excellence Award.

Twenty-one awards were presented in all at a ceremony at Union Station in Washington, D.C. Nov. 1 to kick-off National Adoption Month. The awards are given annually to honor individuals, families, local agencies, private organizations, courts, businesses and states for commitment to increasing the adoptions of children in foster care.

“The winners of this year’s Adoption Excellence Awards deserve our praise and gratitude,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade F. Horn, Ph.D. “Thanks to them, more children in foster care will grow up in a permanent home with a loving family.”

Also on Nov. 1, the first National Heart Gallery exhibit was opened in Washington, D.C. in Union Station’s West Hall as well as The Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda.

Sponsored by The Adoption Exchange Association and The Collaboration to AdoptUsKids, HHS and the Ad Council , with the support of several national adoption partners, the gallery features portraits of children in foster care from around the country taken by local photographers.

The exhibit helps raise awareness of the 119,000 children currently waiting for a home in the U.S.
List of this year’s Adoption Excellence Award winners.

 

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