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The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a national, nonprofit public charity dedicated to dramatically increasing the number of adoptions of children waiting in North America’s foster care systems.
Children are placed in foster care after enduring abuse, neglect, parental drug use or other issues, and many have experienced significant trauma, grief and loss in their lives.
The priority of the foster care system is to keep families together. But when a judge has ruled that it is unsafe for a child to return to their family of origin, they need someone to step forward to adopt them.
children are lingering in foster care across the U.S.
of these young people age out of the system without a family every year.
youth will be homeless after age 18 without the support of a permanent family.
At one point, I thought I was going to be out on the streets.
At the heart of our work is a commitment to understand the needs and lived experiences of the children and youth we serve, improve access for families who want to adopt from foster care and build an organization that supports the broader child welfare community.
Our strategic priorities and signature programs are grounded in research and created with a racial equity lens.
With help from our caring supporters and partners, we are urgently working to raise public awareness and expand the reach of our life-changing programs, including:
Using a model proven to be up to 3x more effective in finding permanent families for the longest-waiting children in foster care.
Promoting the importance of offering adoption and foster care benefits and providing resources to thousands of employers.
Raising awareness and recognizing the adoptions of 90,000+ children from foster care through this annual event.
There are many ways to get involved and make a difference.
“The more you give to others, the more you get in return.”
We offer a variety of resources for parents and professionals.
Athanial spent 12 years in foster care, as his parents struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and could no longer care for him and his brother Levie. Sadly, the siblings were often separated in the system.
When Mark and Kristine met the boys, they knew they were meant to be a family.