2007 Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2007

Contact:

Sara Hanson – 916-368-5114
Rita Soronen – (614) 764-8482

Foundation Takes Innovative Approach to Match Children in Foster Care with Adoptive Families

California Wendy's® Customers Help Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Find Permanent, Loving Homes for Deserving Children Across the Nation and in Canada; Sierra Adoption Services Awarded $60,000 Grant to Support “Wendy's Wonderful Kids” adoption recruiter in Sacramento, California.

Sacramento, California – The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has awarded a $60,000 grant to Sierra Adoption Services to support a Wendy's Wonderful Kids adoption recruiter, helping the program expand into all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada this month; and children in California will see a direct benefit.

As an adopted child and an American success story, Wendy's founder Dave Thomas believed it was unacceptable for any child not to have a safe, loving and permanent home. That is why he created the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – to focus on the thousands of waiting children in foster care who deserve to be adopted. Wendy's Wonderful Kids is the signature, direct-service program of the Foundation that dedicates funds raised by Wendy's restaurants directly to finding adoptive homes for children in foster care.

Today, over 97,000 children are languishing in California's foster care system, waiting to be adopted.

“Wendy's Wonderful Kids gives hope to California's children in foster care, who are just waiting for the right family to find them,” said Gail Johnson, Executive Director of Sierra Adoption Services. “We are thrilled that the Foundation is helping children in California and nationwide.”

In only two years, Wendy's Wonderful Kids recruiters have helped more than 1,000 children in foster care be matched with or adopted by their permanent families. “We are so pleased to have Jamila Sims join Sierra Adoption Services as the Wendy's Wonderful Kids adoption recruiter,” said Debbie Magistrado, Sierra Adoption Services Social Work Supervisor and Wendy's Wonderful Kids program Supervisor. “With this grant and the addition of Jamila Sims to our staff, we are looking forward to the positive results this will bring to waiting children in our community.”

The Wendy's Wonderful Kids model is simple and effective: California's Wendy's restaurants and their customers raise funds for the Foundation, which used those funds to issue a grant to Sierra Adoption Services. Sierra Adoption Services hired a Wendy's Wonderful Kids recruiter, who focuses 100 percent of the time on finding permanent, loving families for California's children in foster care.

The program's unique blend of in-store fundraising, a well-managed grants system, and the hiring of talented, experienced adoption recruiters has proven successful in increasing the number of children adopted out of foster care.

In 2004, 7,754 children were adopted from foster care in California, but 4,903 continued to wait for adoption. Many children in foster care can wait five or more years before they are adopted, and thousands turn 18 and “age out” of the system each year without ever finding a family.

Now that Wendy's Wonderful Kids is in all 50 states, the program's goal to match 8,000 – 10,000 children with adoptive families by 2010 is within reach.

“Children deserve loving, permanent families, and we need people working diligently to find those families for them,” said Rita Soronen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. “Wendy's Wonderful Kids is a deliberate, aggressive, accountable program, and it is working.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, more than half a million children are in the U.S. foster care system, and 114,000 of them are just waiting to be adopted. They need someone who can devote the time and rigorous child-focused strategies to finding them permanent, loving adoptive families. The job of Wendy's Wonderful Kids recruiters is to spend that time and apply their expertise on behalf each child on their caseload.

For more information about the Wendy's Wonderful Kids program, or to schedule an interview with Gail Johnson, Executive Director, Kim Rhinehelder, Fund Development Officer, Debbie Magistrado, Supervisor Wendy's Wonderful Kids program, Jamila Sims, Wendy's Wonderful Kids Family Recruiter or an adoptive family, please contact Sara Hanson, Public Relations Coordinator for Sierra Adoption Services at 916-368-5114 ext. 237, cell phone at 916-801-5319 or email at shanson@sierraadoption.org.

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Statistics are provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau's Preliminary FY 2004 Estimates as of June 2006: www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a non-profit 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to dramatically increasing the adoptions of the more than 140,000 children in North America's foster care systems ready and waiting to be adopted. Created by Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, who was adopted as a child, the Foundation spearheads programs such as Wendy's Wonderful Kids, which puts adoption recruiters in all 50 states and Canada to find permanent, loving families for children in the foster care system, and Adoption-Friendly Workplace, which encourages employers to offer adoption benefits to their employees. The Foundation also works with adoption advocates and officials to streamline the adoption process and make adoption more affordable for families. As the only foundation dedicated exclusively to foster care adoption, we are driven by Dave's simple value: Do what's best for the child. To learn more about the Foundation's work, please visit www.DaveThomasFoundationforAdoption.org.

Sierra Adoption Services (SAS), a private, nonprofit adoption agency, was founded in 1983 by adoptive parents who saw that traditional adoption procedures stood in the way of the placement of many children. Now, more than 20 years later, the agency has placed over 1,400 children in permanent homes, and has a staff of over 60. SAS currently serves families in several northern California counties, including Amador, Butte, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Sierra, Solano, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties. SAS provides no-cost services for adoptive families, including: Family recruitment, Matching of children with families, Homestudy preparation, Parent training classes, Therapeutic services (both during and after placement). We transform the lives of children in foster care by building and nurturing permanent families.