Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Celebrates 2,000 Adoptions from Foster Care in Ohio
Columbus, Ohio — The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national, nonprofit public charity, is proud to announce that more than 2,000 children who lingered in foster care across Ohio now have permanent, loving homes through its signature program, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids®. This program is implemented in the state of Ohio through a partnership with the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.
Through Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, the Foundation supports the hiring of professionals known as recruiters who are dedicated to achieving permanency for the longest-waiting children in foster care. This includes adoption, legal guardianship and family reunification when it is a safe option.
Following a successful pilot, Ohio began expanding the program in 2012, with generous support from The Wendy’s® system and the state of Ohio. “Ohio was the first state to raise its hand to scale the program to ensure there were enough recruiters to serve the number of children waiting in our focus population across the state. We are seeing the impact of that commitment today,” said Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
There are now 83 adoption recruiters in Ohio working with older youth, siblings and children with special needs. The average age of youth served by the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program in Ohio is 14 and at the time of referral to the program, they had been in foster care for nearly three years.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has been a champion of the Foundation’s work even before he took office as Governor.
“Congratulations on achieving 2,000 adoptions made possible by Wendy’s Wonderful Kids,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. “This represents real lives changed, real futures secured and the building of real families. I am proud of the work Ohio has done with Wendy’s Wonderful Kids to help achieve Dave Thomas’s vision that every child will have a permanent home and a loving family — even those who have waited the longest in foster care.”
With help from the Foundation’s generous donors, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids has celebrated more than 16,500 finalizations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada and counting.
The program focuses on finding permanent families within a child’s network of extended family, friends and others in their life who already care for them and can meet their needs. A rigorous, five-year evaluation by Child Trends in the U.S. revealed that children served by the program are up to three times more likely to be adopted.
About the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a national, nonprofit public charity dedicated to finding permanent homes for the more than 130,000 children waiting in North America’s foster care systems. Created by Wendy’s® founder Dave Thomas who was adopted, the Foundation implements evidence-based, results-driven national service programs, foster care adoption awareness campaigns and innovative grantmaking. To learn more, visit davethomasfoundation.org.
