This year, National Adoption Day is recognized on November 19, 2022. However, the entire month of November is traditionally a time to acknowledge and learn about adoption and children in foster care and forever families whose lives have been impacted by adoption.
National Adoption Day began as an effort to raise awareness of children in foster care waiting to be adopted, according to nationaladoptionday.org.
One area of focus I am raising awareness for this year is teen adoptions. I am encouraging others to raise awareness in their community. There are thousands of teenagers in this country who need a permanent home, according to childwelfare.gov. The Children’s Bureau’s National Adoption Month campaign theme is Small Steps Open Doors this year. Check out this link for helpful resources, tools, youth stories, and ways to get involved. A great resource is the National Adoption Month Outreach Tool Kit to assist in using social media, email, and other communication platforms to get the word out and promote National Adoption Month.
With a focus on teenagers and adoption, one particular story carved in my memory comes to light this time of year. It is a story from my early days as an attorney working with adoptive families. The story is about a boy in the foster care system throughout his childhood. He was in and out of foster homes and could not find a stable home for many years. Finally, he found a foster mother that could stand by his side in his late teenage years and offer continued stability and support. At 22, he was finally adopted and created his forever family, cementing a relationship built over the years with unconditional love.
As stated in the Outreach Tool Kit, emphasizing teenage adoption is vital because teenagers wait longer for permanency and are at more risk of aging out of the foster care system.
As per the National Adoption Day website, more than 115,000 children are waiting to be adopted from foster care in the United States. More locally, there are over 4,000 children in foster care in Connecticut, and many of these children need permanent homes (see adoptuskids.org).
The efforts to create a National Adoption Day were started by various adoption organizations, which prompted nine cities to open courthouses on one Saturday during November to finalize adoptions. This, in turn, helped reduce backlogged cases awaiting finalizations in busy courthouses.
More information about National Adoption Day can be found on the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption website, where you can also find or register for an event in your area.
Historically, the initial adoption-related event that focused awareness on adoptions was in 1976 when then-Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts proclaimed the first week of November as “Adoption Week” to focus on the need for more families to care for children in foster care. It then turned into a national event shortly after that, according to The Adoption Network.
Also, as per The Adoption Network website, the need for more days of event planning to raise awareness became necessary as the number of events grew.
Then, in 1998, President Bill Clinton announced the beginning of National Adoption Month in November, which is the event currently celebrated and recognized. Whether you are someone interested in adopting, curious to learn about the process or know someone that might be interested, National Adoption Month is a great place to start and learn about the available resources.
For local families or individuals in Connecticut, a good resource for information about becoming a foster or adoptive parent is the ct.gov website. On this website, you will find a phone number and email to obtain information about becoming a foster or adoptive parent. Additionally, there is much important information about subsidies, training, forms, legal aspects surrounding foster care and adoption, and frequently asked questions. There are also foster and adoption stories shared to learn more about personal experiences.
Another great resource is A Family for Every Child, which includes information about Connecticut’s foster and adoption process and post-adoption support services.
Also on the Ct.gov website is the Connecticut Heart Gallery, which gives profiles of children who need forever families and contact information to reach out for more details.
Listings of virtual foster care and adoption informational meetings can be found here on the Connecticut Department of Children and Families website.
Whether you are interested in the idea of foster care and the adoption process and looking to gather information, or if you are further along, the organizations listed above will be helpful.
