OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
We have learned alongside our Community Partners as they have faced challenges, overcome barriers, and achieved extraordinary successes. Find out more about each project and the outcomes below.
YEAR
2007
GRANT CATEGORY
Family
GRANT AMOUNT
$104,000
Organization:
Adoption Coalition of Texas
Project Title:
Recruitment and Outreach
Project Description:
The Adoption Coalition of Texas is a nonprofit collaboration of community-based adoption organizations and Child Protective Services, whose mission is to find families for children languishing in the foster care system.
The Adoption Coalition will use the $104,000 to expand recruitment and outreach efforts for programs to include The Heart Gallery of Central Texas and Forever Families, thereby increasing the number of older children, sibling groups and children with special needs adopted from foster care into permanent, stable families.
Grant Status:
The adoption numbers far exceeded the goals. In 2007, there were 643 adoption placements, up from 518 in 2006, an increase of 125, up 24%. Clearly, the outreach programs funded by this grant were very effective in raising the number of adoptions.
The 2007 Heart Gallery of Central Texas featured 106 portraits of more than 140 kids, up from 91 the previous year and exceeding the goal of 75. The Gallery toured Central Texas for eight months, generating tremendous interest along the way. In the first 16 days alone, there were over 1000 inquiries and families were found for five sets of children.
In addition, Wendy’s Restaurants created a Heart Gallery collage which was displayed in all 31 Wendy’s locations around Austin, Round Rock and Cedar Park for several months, helping to promote adoption of children from foster care.
The Adoption Coalition developed two videos for the Kids Helping Kids Program in spite of numerous complications and delays. With the help of photographers from News 8 Austin and freelancers, the Adoption Coalition captured video of five subjects including kids, adoptive families and prospective families. From this, an adoption information video was created for use with older kids. However, the segment featuring five kids in a round-table discussion about adoption was beset by issues in the lives of the kids themselves. Finally individual segments were taped and pieced together into one video.
The Adoption Coalition held the Foster Care and Adoption Expo in November 2007, and it was a huge success. Two hundred twenty-six people attended, by far the largest expo they have hosted, the highest prior attendance being 83.
The Ambassador Program exceeded its goal of 30 ambassadors with a total of 52 by the end of the grant period.