Adoption Awareness Month
Submitted by Nevada Department of Human Services Division of Child and Family Services | Rural Region
Nevada Division of Child and Family Services Supports Adoption Awareness Month
Parker is 12. He likes dirt bikes, football and wrestling — “boy things,” he calls them. He also likes ice cream, books and science class (for the fun experiments). And he dreams of growing up with an adoptive family.
To learn more about Parker, visit: https://dcfs.nv.gov/Programs/CWS/Adoption/ChildrenAvailable/ChildrenAvailable/
November is Adoption Awareness Month and the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services says several rural Nevada children need permanent homes.
The Division has launched a pilot program with Family-Match, a data-driven tool child welfare professionals can use to identify and evaluate prospective adoptive families. With this tool, prospective adoptive families add their profiles and wait for adoption recruiters to reach out to them for potential matches with youth.
Children who cannot reunify with their birth families and do not have an identified permanent placement will transition to adoption recruitment; as do some teens, siblings, and children with special mental or physical needs, Division adoption recruiter and social worker Ashley Hall, LMSW, said.
“Everybody needs someone they can rely on,” she said. “These kids have had their trust and bonds broken; that can make it harder for them to connect. But once that connection (with a new family) is made, the rewards are huge.”
The National Council for Adoption reported that there were 36,411 children awaiting adoption nationally at the end of fiscal year 2023.
The National Child Welfare Information Gateway reported when fiscal 2022 ended, the average time in care for all adoption awaiting children was nearly three years.
The Division said Family-Match shortens match time and lowers disruptions, boosting completed adoptions by approximately 25%, according to Family-Match’s research.
The Division said the financial, social and educational stability children gain when they’re adopted gives them a better shot at a successful childhood, and life. She urged families who want to adopt to do so and to prepare themselves.
“Consider fostering or mentoring before adoption,” said Hall. “It’s a great way to get experience.”
The Division has several tools and resources available to match children
and families as well as to support adoptive parents, including:
· Raise the Future, a nonprofit group designing and applying evidence-based services that reduce young people’s time in foster care without a permanent family.
· The Quality Parenting Initiative, a network that shares information for better parenting, and for recruiting and retaining adoptive and foster families.
· Just in Time, connects foster parents and other caregivers with training, peer experts and other resources. https://www.jitnevada.org/
· The Reel Hope Project, a nonprofit that creates videos of children awaiting adoption.
· Family-Match, a platform that streamlines family recruitment and child placement.
Parker also likes a book called “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” and a Disney show about snakes. He imagines a career as a police officer or a semitruck driver and a life with a family. “One day, I’d like to do activities in my family, like laser tag … and riding dirt bikes,” he said.
To learn more about Parker and other adoption-available children in rural Nevada, email adoptionrecruiter@dcfs.nv.gov.