National Campaign to Encourage Adoption

HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., with then HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson (right), at the Collaboration to AdoptUSKids conference at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC, July 15. Families from around the country that have adopted children from foster care helped ACF unveil this new campaign to encourage the adoption of children [click here for additional photos from this event].

With a significant number of children in the U.S. foster care system in need of permanent, loving homes, a new campaign entitled “Answering the Call: A National Campaign to Encourage Adoption of Children from Foster Care” was unveiled to increase public awareness and encourage adoption of children from the foster care system.

The new ad campaign is part of HHS’ five-year, multi-faceted initiative which focuses on recruiting new families for the more than 129,000 children in foster care waiting to be adopted.

PSAs highlight the adoption of older children (ages 8-17), who comprise 53 percent of children in foster care who are in need of permanent homes. To view the PSAs, go to: http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/adoption/.

“Children need families not only while growing up, but throughout their entire lifetimes,” Dr. Horn said. “There are many people who would make really terrific adoptive parents but have not thought about it. With this campaign, we’re trying to inspire and motivate more people to consider adoption as an option for themselves and their families.”

Dr. Horn noted that there are many resources available to help prospective adoptive parents educate themselves about adoption and the benefits of providing a home for a child from foster care. For example, adoptive parents may be eligible to receive support in the form of training, adoption subsidies and Medicaid. And, in 2003, a new $10,000 tax credit went into effect benefiting parents who adopt a child with special needs. “We want prospective parents to know that we’ve streamlined the adoption process to make it easier and of little or no cost for those who qualify,” said Horn.

The PSAs were developed in cooperation with the Ad Council, the country’s leading source of public service advertising campaigns, and the Collaboration to AdoptUSkids. The Ad Council began working with the ACF on this campaign in May 2003.

The Collaboration to AdoptUSkids is a multi-faceted, five-year, federally funded project; the goal of which is the recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive families for children in the foster care system. The AdoptUSkids project is managed by the Adoption Exchange Association (AEA), based in Baltimore, through a cooperative agreement with ACF’s Children’s Bureau.

For more information about becoming an adoptive parent to a child from foster care, please visit www.AdoptUSKids.org or call toll-free at 1-888-200-4005.

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