TOPEKA — Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Rob Siedlecki announced Monday a $300,000 marketing campaign to promote the adoption of children in state care who face challenging circumstances.
The department is asking for proposals to fulfill a $300,000 federally funded adoption incentive grant to manage an innovative and aggressive marketing campaign to recruit adoptive families. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided the grant funds through its Agency for Children and Families. The goal of this grant is to significantly increase the number of adoptions during the calendar year 2012 compared to the previous year.
“The campaign is directed towards our children who are typically hardest to place in adoptive families– the kids in sibling groups, with mental or physical disabilities and teenagers,” said Secretary Siedlecki. “This project will be an enhanced recruitment effort to find families that would be willing to adopt children whose circumstances have presented a challenge. Our goal is to place these children in stable, loving families.”
Children who are the focus of this initiative are age 8 or older, may belong to a minority group, have a disability or belong to a sibling group that wants to stay together.
There were 761 adoptions finalized in FY 2011. So far this fiscal year there have been 178 adoptions finalized for our children in state care.
Even though there are technically 900 children who are available for adoption, many of them live with a relative or a foster family that are planning to adopt them. They have adoption plans, are moving toward finalization and are not listed as available on the statewide adoption database. However, currently there are 420 children that are actively searching for families through channels such as the www.adoptkskids.org website, and the Klicks for Kids program.
“These are Kansas children with no adoptive family identified. They are alone in the world. We want to bring them together with a family,” the Secretary said.
Secretary Siedlecki and other SRS staff and contractors joined adoptive families at the Topeka Discovery Center to make the announcement and to extol the benefits of adoption for both the adopted child and their families.
Topekan Jonathan Schumm and his wife Allison have eight children, five of whom they adopted as a sibling group. Jonathan spoke about his children, Nicole 16, Alisa 13, Emmanuel 11, Jaquale 6, Angel 5, Mercy 5, Isaiah 3, Kyrsten 1, and the way adoption completed their family.
“For us, adoption was finding children we didn’t know were ours until the day they entered our heart and home,” Jonathan said.
Gov. Sam Brownback proclaimed November Kansas Adoption Month. On November 19, a number of court jurisdictions will finalize more than 100 adoptions. During the course of the month SRS and all the foster care providers will be honoring and celebrating with adoptive families across the state for their commitment to adoption.
Adoptions through the State of Kansas are little or no cost and legally secure. Kansas families who adopt children may be eligible for financial subsidies. Other assistance includes health care for the children through the state’s Medicaid program and college tuition for those adopted from state care after age 16.
For more information on adopting a Kansas child, please visit www.adoptkskids.org.