From the Child Welfare Information Gateway
National Adoption Month is an initiative of the Children's Bureau with the goal to increase national awareness of the need for permanent families for children and youth in the U.S. foster care system.
Each year, we focus our outreach and awareness-raising efforts around a new adoption-related theme to help support professionals working each day to find permanency for children and youth in foster care in their community. This year's National Adoption Month theme is "Engage Youth: Listen and Learn." It is well known that teenagers are less likely to be adopted, often because of their age, and are much more likely to age out of foster care without strong or stable family support. Securing lifelong connections for teens in foster care, both legally and emotionally, is a critical component in determining their future achievement, health, and well-being.
This year's National Adoption Month microsite includes resources and tips to help child welfare and legal professionals develop and support both formal and informal opportunities for young people to effectively share their voice and perspective. Hearing from youth who have experience in foster care—whether they’ve been reunited with family, achieved permanency with an adoptive family, or entered adulthood independently—can help educate communities and shape child welfare and adoption processes and policies. Their stories can inform recruitment practices, training resources for families, and other permanency support services. This year's website also contains resources designed specifically for youth, including how to get involved and ways to share their story effectively.
If you are looking for other adoption-related information, you can explore the adoption section on Child Welfare Information Gateway. If you are interested in adopting from foster care, please visit the resources and photolisting available from AdoptUSKids(opens in new window).
More information and ways to get involved can also be found at https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/nam/