National Adoption Month 2018: Join the conversation

Each year, November is recognized as National Adoption Month and Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health wants to shine a light on the urgent need to connect the thousands of children and youth in the U.S. foster care system with permanent, loving families.

This year’s National Adoption Month theme is “In Their Own Words: Lifting Up Youth Voices.” It focuses – for the third straight year – on teenagers and young adults who are still looking for their forever homes. The idea is to show how hearing from those who have spent time in foster care can help educate the public and shape child welfare policies and practices.

“Their stories can inform recruitment practices, training resources for families and other permanency support services,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Welfare Information Gateway website.

Startling statistics

The latest Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data reveals that, in the United States, more than 435,000 children are in foster care (of which, 27 percent are 13- to 18-years-old), and more than 115,000 children and youth in foster care are waiting to be adopted (more than 13,000 are 15- to 17-years-old). Circumstances behind why these youth have been removed from their homes include: neglect (61 percent), drug abuse (34 percent), caretaker inability to cope (14 percent) and physical abuse (12 percent).

“Every child, no matter their age or background, deserves a loving family and a place to call home,” said Devereux Director of Foster Care Services Paul Davis. “All too often, when people are looking to adopt, they think of infants, when there are, in fact, thousands of teens and young adults in foster care who need the love, support and encouragement that families provide.”

Foster care services at Devereux

Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health provides traditional foster care and treatment foster care services to a diverse population of at-risk children – and their families – in the following states: Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

Our foster care programs operate with the belief that all individuals deserve a loving, supportive and nurturing family – and a positive home environment – to help them reach their unique potential. We utilize a multi-disciplinary approach with an emphasis on innovative program development, teamwork and clinical excellence.

“Devereux’s foster care services, which include traditional care, kinship care and therapeutic care, are designed to help kids grow and thrive,” Davis explained. “Truly, we are here to find the critical support system these children need – and deserve – to feel loved, cared for and wanted.”

Click here for details on Devereux’s foster care services.

Learn more about National Adoption Month

National Adoption Month is an initiative of the Children's Bureau – part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – and is supported through a partnership with Child Welfare Information Gateway and AdoptUSKids. To learn more, click here.

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