National Adoption Day

November is National Adoption Month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the critical need for permanent homes for children in foster care. National Adoption Day will take place Friday, November 16, 2012 from 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM in Columbus, Ohio at the Franklin County Probate Court. 

"Nationwide Insurance legal staff is proud to partner with Franklin County Children Services and the National Adoption Law and Policy Center to support National Adoption Day in Central Ohio. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate how government, public policy and corporate professionals can work together to strengthen our communities. Adoption is an especially poignant act for me personally, as I was adopted by my father Houston Hatler. Adoption gives a child a sense of permanency that can only be found in a forever home."
 - Patricia Hatler, Chief Legal and Governance Officer, Nationwide Insurance 

For more information on National Adoption Day, go to: http://www.nationaladoptionday.org/.    

• Currently, Franklin County Children Services has more than 200 children in its permanent custody waiting to be adopted. Of these children, youth ages 15 to 18 are in the greatest need for a permanent home, along with sibling groups and children with special needs ages 6 to 14.

• The average child waits for an adoptive family for more than two years, with 19% or nearly 24,300 children waiting as long as 5 years.

• For the last 10 years, National Adoption Day has grown from events in nine jurisdictions to now include events in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. In total, more than 25,000 children have been adopted from foster care on National Adoption Day.

• In 2007, a National Survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption revealed that 48 million people have considered adoption from foster care, yet, there are still over 129,000 children awaiting an adoptive family

• Adopting children from foster care is virtually free. In addition, a growing number of companies and government agencies offer adoption assistance as part of their employee benefit packages, including time off for maternity/paternity leave, financial incentives, and other benefits and Congress has made federal tax credits available for foster care adoptions to help offset required fees, court costs, legal and travel expenses

For more information on adopting children from foster care locally, call Franklin County Children Services at 614.341.6060 or visit the website at http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/Children_Services.

For more information on National Adoption Day, go to: http://www.nationaladoptionday.org/

For more information on the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy, go to: http://www.ncalp.org