Staff report

A new milestone has been reached in the mission to find permanent, loving homes for children and teenagers in foster care.

Ohio nonprofit The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is announcing that through its Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program, 15,000 young people have been adopted from foster care in 20 years. More than 10% of the adoptions happened in Ohio, which was the first state to fully implement the program.

Of those Ohio adoptions, 25 occurred in Mahoning County and 68 occurred in Trumbull County, according to numbers released earlier this month by the Foundation. However, a spokeswoman said they just started tracking county-specific data in 2012, so the totals are probably low.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption hopes to bring Wendy’s Wonderful Kids to all 50 states and continue to search for forever families that meet the specific needs of each child, as children served by the program are up to three times more likely to be adopted.

“This means 15,000 children no longer have to worry about never having a family or what will happen if they age out of care,” said Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. “Today, we celebrate the collective impact of our caring community, including foster and adoptive parents, adoption professionals, partners and donors, and thank them for their dedication to this critical work. Together, we will continue to make a difference in the lives of the children we serve.”

Based on this evaluation and a successful pilot of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, the foundation launched an aggressive, multi-year business plan in 2017 to expand the program across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. To date, 20 states as well as Ontario, Canada have scaled or are currently scaling the program with a total of more than 580 recruiters working tirelessly on behalf of every child in their care.

“This milestone is truly something to celebrate. Having a permanent family and a place to call home makes all the difference for a child. Thanks to the diligent work of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids adoption recruiters, 15,000 children now experience safety, comfort and love every day,” said Rob Geen, chair of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s board of trustees.

Ohio became the first state to commit to an innovative partnership to scale the program statewide starting in 2012 — with generous support from The Wendy’s system. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who has made serving children in foster care one of his administration’s top priorities, praised the Foundation’s work and collaboration with the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.

“We celebrate that more than 15,000 children, including almost 1,800 in Ohio, have been adopted with help from Wendy’s Wonderful Kids,” DeWine said. “We have more work to do to help find loving homes for kids in foster care and look forward to working with Wendy’s Wonderful Kids to help even more kids.”

When a state is fully scaled, it means there are enough recruiters to serve the program’s focus population of children over the age of 9, teenagers, children with special needs and siblings who are too often overlooked. These adoption professionals serve smaller caseloads of 12 to 15 children to ensure every child receives the time, resources and support they deserve.

Of the youth served by the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program in the U.S. and Canada, 14 is the average age.