US Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, Awards Foundation the Adoption Excellence Award for Wendy's Wonderful Kids
As a result of a nomination by the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy (Columbus), the Foundation has received the Adoption Excellence Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, for Wendy's Wonderful Kids.
An annual awards program, the Adoption Excellence Awards grew out of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. The awards recognize outstanding accomplishments in achieving permanency for America's children waiting in foster care. The Adoption Excellence Awards honor states, local agencies, private organizations, courts, businesses, individuals and families who are making key contributions to increasing the number of children from the foster care system who are adopted or placed in other permanent homes.
In 2004, the Foundation piloted their signature direct-service program, Wendy's Wonderful Kids, in seven locations across the country. The focus of this program is to assist local adoption agencies in reducing the number of children and duration of time that children remained in foster care. The Foundation awards grants to local child welfare organizations to hire adoption recruiters who dedicate 100 percent of their time to identify and match families with waiting kids. In two and a half years, Wendy's Wonderful Kids has made a national impact on children waiting in foster care by expanding the programs to include 105 recruiters in all 50 States, the District of Columbia and the Canada. The program's combination of national and local level partners provides a successful strategy to accomplish its goal of matching 8,000 to 10,000 children with adoptive families by 2010.
As of August 2007, Wendy's Wonderful Kids has served 2,536 children in foster care and matched 1,253 children with adoptive families. Funding for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is raised through Wendy's restaurants' coin canisters, in-store promotions, and golf tournaments. In 2006, Wendy's in-store fundraising programs raised approximately $6 million in customer donations to fund the growth of Wendy's Wonderful Kids.
Members of the Wendy's Wonderful Kids team will be at the awards lunch in December in Washington, DC to accept the award, along with the 14 other honorees.
Contact:
Rita L. Soronen, Executive Director
614.764.8482