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NCFA Celebrates National Foster Care Month with Launch of Families For All PSA Campaign
Alexandria, VA – The National Council For Adoption (NCFA) is celebrating May as National Foster Care month with the launch of a new Families For All public service announcement (PSA) featuring its National Adoption Spokesperson, country music recording artist Rodney Atkins.
National Council For Adoption Teams Up with Wal-Mart and Rodney Atkins to Inspire Better Care for Children in Foster Care
Alexandria, VA – May is National Foster Care Month, and the National Council For Adoption (NCFA) and Wal-Mart are jointly launching the Families For All public awareness campaign to inspire American families to consider what they can do to help children in foster care.
Welcome To Our Site!
At the end of 2006, there were 510,000 children living in foster care. Since 1999, the number of children in foster care waiting to be adopted has held steady at around 129,000, while the number of children entering the system has risen from approximately 290,000 to 310,000 annually. Nearly all children in foster care entered the system as a result of substantiated instances of abuse and neglect.
The need is great. Of the over one half million children in foster care in 2006, over more than 86,000 were living in group homes and institutions. Group homes and institutions provide only the basic necessities for those children for whom living with their biological families is not a safe option. They cannot in any way provide the same safe, enriching environment that a loving family can.
A Message from Rodney Atkins
NCFA’s National Adoption Spokesperson
Rodney Atkins Speaks Out for Children in Foster Care! Click here to view and download the PSAs.
Most people know me as a country music artist and songwriter. That’s what I do for a living, because that’s what I love. But let me tell you a thing or two about love.
You see, love saved my life. You may not know it, but I was adopted as a baby by my wonderful parents, Allan and Margaret Atkins of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. I was a sickly baby, and after two sets of adoptive parents took me home, they returned me to the orphanage because of a serious respiratory infection.
But as they say, the third time’s a charm, because my mom and dad adopted me and took me into their home where I was raised in a family full of love. My parents believed that love is the best medicine, and I’m living proof of that.
Adoption changed my life, and it can change yours, as well as that of a child in foster care who needs a loving, permanent family.
Julia’s Story
Julia Charles knows exactly what 510,000 children and youth are going through. She entered foster care at an early age and watched her family ties sever, as her brothers and sisters were placed in different foster homes. She never understood why they couldn’t stay together. Julia was moved 16 times, had more social workers than she could count and finally left the foster care system at age 21 and was adopted at 23.
Julia has overcome her previously destructive behaviors and is leading a healthy lifestyle. As a 25 year-old graduate of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, Julia found caring adults and discovered an inner resilience. Her experiences have shaped her into a dynamic force committed to improving the foster care system and spreading the message of hope to young people in foster care.
The House that Love Built
It all started in 1963 when a young couple from Opelousas, Louisiana living on modest means took in two small, neglected children as part of their growing family. At that time foster parents were not allowed to adopt children in foster care, or else Mary Alice and Warren Babineaux would have made the brother and sister that came to them in filthy clothes a permanent part of their family. But what the couple didn’t have in money, they more than made up for with love, foster parenting more than 100 children over the years, adopting four of them, and forever changing the destinies of neglected and abused children who simply needed to be loved.
Click here to view the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams “Making a Difference” segment on Warren and Mary Alice Babineaux.