Wendy’s Wonderful Kids is making a difference for thousands of children up for adoption—one child at a time. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption awards grants to public and private adoption agencies to hire adoption professionals who implement proactive, child-focused recruitment programs targeted exclusively on moving North America’s longest-waiting children from foster care into adoptive families. The General Child and Family Services Authority received a grant in 2013 from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption to bring children one step closer to finding homes. Manitoba is the fifth province to be awarded this grant.
Through its partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the General Authority currently has one recruiter working to find “forever families” for children.
Research from a five-year evaluation of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids shows that children referred to the program are up to three times more likely to get adopted.
OUR RECRUITERS
These professionals, known as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, work on caseloads of children the system has forgotten, ensuring they have the time and resources to give each child as much attention as he or she deserves. These recruiters employ aggressive practices and proven tactics focused on finding the best home for a child through the starting points of familiar circles of family, friends and neighbors, and then reaching out to the communities in which they live.
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids has recruiters working for children throughout the U.S. and Canada. The program has helped thousands of children get adopted by their forever families.
OUR CHILDREN
The children served by the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program are typically those who have been waiting the longest for an adoptive family and home. By the time they are referred to a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter, nearly 70 per cent are older than age eight, 30 per cent have had six or more placements, and 50 per cent have been in foster care more than four years. Some have never had a plan of adoption and have simply been on a track to age out of foster care at age 18 or 21 without the security and love of a permanent family.
For more information, please contact the General Authority agencies and service regions. Or contact Angela Marshall at the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Canada.