A needed focus on adoptions

Editorial

Unless you've been there, it is hard to fathom being a child without a family, and, in many cases, living somewhere other than the place you knew as home. But for hundreds of children and teens across Florida — and tens of thousands throughout the United States — this is life, daily.

Today throughout the country, adoption advocates, agencies, children and others celebrate National Adoption Day, when the focus is on finding "forever" families for youths in foster care. It is part of National Adoption Month.

In Hillsborough County, the observation was on Friday in Tampa. There was much to celebrate. Judges finalized 27 adoptions as part of Hillsborough Kids' and the community's celebration of National Adoption Day. Hillsborough Kids is the lead child-welfare agency in the county, and partners with Camelot Community Care, a social services agency based in Pinellas County.

The Hillsborough Kids/Camelot Community Care partnership is a perfect example of the joy that can be spread when agencies are given the resources to devote to finding families for children and teens in foster care.

In 2004 Hillsborough Kids applied for, and received, a grant from The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, through its Wendy's Wonderful Kids program. The grant provided funds to hire a full-time adoption recruiter — someone whose job is to use any resource available to find homes for these vulnerable children.

Three years later, in 2007, the agency was awarded a second grant from the program, and now Camelot Community Care oversees two recruiters who diligently work to find permanent homes for children for whom it is often difficult to find families. These are youths who are older and those with health issues, among other special circumstances.

The results are impressive. Of 169 children served by the grants — which average $67,500 a year — since 2004, 75 have been adopted. At present, another child is in "pre-adoptive placement" awaiting finalization, and there are four other children with "pending matches," according to Hillsborough Kids.

Overall, Hillsborough Kids has linked more than 2,000 children with forever families in just the last three years, according to the agency.

A recently released, five-year study by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption clearly proves that adoption recruiters have a profound impact on lives. The study was conducted by Child Trends, a Washington, D.C.-based firm.

Results showed that children in foster care served by the Wendy's Wonderful Kids grant are 1.7 times more likely to be adopted than other children. For children referred at age 8, adoption is 1.5 times higher. For those referred at age 11, the likelihood was two times higher. And youths 15 or older and children with mental health disorders are three times more likely to find families.

These children cannot be helped to find homes solely by posting their pictures on websites or featuring them in advertisements, in magazines or on television. Someone has to, in the words of Thomas Foundation for Adoption president and CEO Rita Soronen, be willing to do a "deep dive" into a child's life to search for relatives and others who may be interested in adoption, as well as prepare the child and the prospective family for the big step, among other functions.

This is what recruiters do, and it works, as local success stories show. While government revenues are tight across the state, it is a worthwhile investment to allocate resources for adoption recruiters to reduce the number of children in foster care in Florida and across the nation. Who doesn't want a happy ending?