Thursday, November 2, 2017
November is National Adoption Month, a time to raise awareness about the thousands of children in our foster-care system waiting to be adopted. In honor of National Adoption Month, communities across the state of Indiana are celebrating finalized adoptions while working to promote the adoption process, its benefits and the children in need of forever families.
Children enter foster care through no fault of their own, often due to abuse, neglect or abandonment from ones that should have been there to protect and nurture them.
In Indiana, most of the children seeking families are between the ages of 8 and 16, often with siblings. The Indiana Adoption Program, also known as the Special Needs Adoption Program (SNAP), is Indiana’s initiative through the Department of Child Services to find homes for these children in foster care. Although children much younger are in the program, they are often reunited with their family, adopted by another family member or adopted by their foster parents.
Since the start of National Adoption Month in 1995, the tireless efforts of dedicated individuals who have worked with courts, judges, attorneys, adoption professionals, child-welfare agencies and advocates to finalize adoptions have resulted in finding homes for tens of thousands of children. Indiana is one of the top states for adoption, with the Indiana Department of Child Services reporting more than 1,500 adoptions in 2016 alone.
If you are interested in becoming an adoptive parent through the state, contact the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) at 1-888-25-ADOPT or visit its website at www.in.gov/dcs.
