Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Celebrates 500 Adoptions from Foster Care in Texas
The private-public partnership focuses on finding forever families for children who have lingered in the system the longest.

Columbus, Ohio — The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is excited to announce it has reached 500 adoptions from foster care in the state of Texas through Wendy’s Wonderful Kids®.
Through this program, the Foundation supports the hiring of adoption professionals, known as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, who serve the longest-waiting children. This includes older children, teenagers, siblings and children with special needs who are too often overlooked. Since inception, the program has helped find safe, loving and permanent homes for more than 15,000 children across the U.S. and Canada.
The Foundation is in the process of fully scaling Wendy’s Wonderful Kids in Texas, meaning that soon, there will be enough adoption recruiters to serve the entire focus population of waiting youth. The Foundation is working closely with the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services (TACFS) to scale across the state. They have been critical to expanding the program and partnering with other public and private child welfare agencies across the state.
“Implementing and scaling Wendy’s Wonderful Kids in Texas has been so rewarding for our network of providers who believe strongly in the adoptability of every child. This milestone shows the power of community-centered recruitment when finding and sustaining an adoption match. Reaching 500 adoptions would not have been possible without the intentionality of the DTFA and TACFS staff collaboration with the SSCCs, and the 34 recruiters implementing this evidence-based approach in the field each day,” said Megan Ransom, Interim CEO, Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services.
“The sheer geographical enormity of Texas makes this scaling effort unique,” said Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. “Our partners help us keep a pulse on local needs and be able to make pivots, as necessary. These 500 youth are now waking up in the same home each day with parents who love them … the strong relationship we have with TACFS and agencies in the state have been instrumental in this life-changing impact.”
Using the Foundation’s child-focused recruitment model, adoption professionals begin the diligent search for a permanent family within the network of adults the child already knows, including extended family members, who already care for them and can meet their needs. A rigorous, national five-year evaluation revealed that youth served by Wendy’s Wonderful Kids are up to three times more likely to be adopted.
The Foundation first partnered in the state of Texas in 2006 and announced its scaling effort in 2022. Texas consists of 11 regions to manage its foster care adoption process. The program is scaled/scaling in five regions, has recruiters serving seven regions and works with 10 separate partners in those seven regions. Those partners include: 2INgage, 4Kids4Families, Arms Wide, Arrow Child and Family Ministries, Belong, Helping Hand Home, New Horizons, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Regions 6A and 6B, Texas Family Care Network and Upbring.
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 140,000 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.
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