Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Program Reaches 1,000 Adoptions
(Dublin, OH – July 1, 2009) Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption reached its 1000th adoption this week.
The
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program combines the fundraising of Wendy's restaurants and its customers, aggressive grants management of the Foundation, and the talent of experienced adoption professionals throughout the nation and in Canada to move children from foster care into permanent, loving adoptive homes.
The Foundation distributes grants to local adoption agencies in order to fund recruiters whose goal is execute aggressive child-focused recruitment focused on placing foster care children with adoptive families. In addition to managing the grants and providing critical support to its grantees, the Foundation has contracted with Child Trends (Washington, D.C.) to perform long-term rigorous research of the
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids model, in order to measure and assure positive impact and outcomes for the children served.
Since April 2004, the program has expanded from seven sites to 120, serving children in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. To date,
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters have served 4,584 children in foster care. Of that total number, 56% were matched with prospective adoptive parents and 1,010 have been adopted.
“These children are those who have been waiting the longest in foster care as victims of child abuse and neglect. Half are 12 or older, 40% have at least one disability, half have had to move four or more times in foster care, most have been in foster care more than four years, and many more than ten years. Sadly, two out of ten had failed adoptions prior to being served by the program,” said Rita Soronen, the Foundation’s executive director. “Reaching 1,000 adoptions is an exciting milestone for our program, because it demonstrates the effectiveness of the
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids model in finding families for our most vulnerable children.”
About the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption:
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a nonprofit 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to dramatically increasing the adoptions of the more than 150,000 children waiting in North America's foster care systems. Created by Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas, who was adopted as a child, the Foundation works to fulfill its mission by implementing result-driven national signature programs, awareness initiatives and advocacy efforts. To learn more, call 1-800-ASK-DTFA or visit
www.DaveThomasFoundationforAdoption.org.
CONTACT:
Rita Soronen, Executive Director
614-764-8482
rita_soronen@davethomasfoundation.org