Click and watch these quick psa's from the National Adoption Day Website: Watch MeFoster Care Adoption: Facts & Figures
Every year, more than 100,000 children in foster care are available for adoption. Many spend more than five years waiting for permanent, loving homes. Between 2000 and 2007, more than 20,000 children were joined together with their forever families as part of National Adoption Day activities.
Who are these waiting children?• There are an estimated 510,000 children in foster care in the United States, and more than 129,000 of them are waiting to be adopted.
• Through no fault of their own, these children enter foster care as a result of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment.
• The average child waits for an adoptive family for more than two years.
• 19 percent spend 5 years or more waiting for a family (24,300 children).
• The average age of children waiting for an adoptive family is 8.
What happens to them?• 51,000 children are adopted from foster care.
• More than 26,000 children reach the age of 18 without ever finding a forever family.
Who adopts from foster care?• Children in foster care are adopted by three types of families: former foster parents (59 percent), relatives (26 percent) and non-relatives (15 percent).
• Of the families who adopt children from foster care, 69 percent are married couples, 26 percent are single females, 3 percent are single males, and 2 percent are unmarried couples.
• A national survey in 2007 revealed that 48 million Americans have considered adoption from foster care – more so than any other form of adoption, including private adoption of an infant or international adoption. (National Foster Care Adoption Attitudes Survey, November 2007. Commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and conducted by Harris Interactive.)
To find out more about adopting a child in the United States, please visit
www.nationaladoptionday.org or call 1-800-ASK-DTFA.
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Imagine you are turning 18 soon and know you are aging out of the system. Who will guide you? Who will love you? Who will show you the ropes and teach you to be self sufficient? Who will you share holidays with? Birthdays? Life's milestones?
When I was 18 I was no where near ready for the real world. Especially on my own.
(Unless otherwise indicated, statistics are provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children; Interim Estimates for FY 2006.)
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A big, "THANK YOU!!" to our friends at Company Kids for the totally fun (and darling) hooded Ducky towel we'll be giving away tonight to 1 lucky viewer! Please make sure to check out their web site.. it's loaded with DARLING products!
