Filling family portraits: A picture says a thousand words
By Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO)
November 6, 2009Columbus, OH - All children deserve a loving, permanent home. That is the motivation behind an adoption advocacy event held today at the Ohio Statehouse. In recognition of National Adoption Awareness Month, a group of adoption advocates have combined forces to sponsor "Filling Family Portraits" to celebrate and promote adoption awareness for waiting children. During the program, hundreds of empty frames were displayed on the statehouse steps to symbolize those children without permanent family connections.
"Today is a bittersweet day for the 3,000 Ohio children in state custody and waiting for adoptive families. On one hand we gather to celebrate Adoption Awareness Month and focus on adoptions for children currently in foster care, but on the other hand we must acknowledge the stark reality of Ohio's recently passed budget that cut $43 million in adoption funding. These cuts have severely put current adopted children at risk and they have stalled activities to secure loving permanent homes for Ohio's waiting children. Each day Ohio delays is another day children spend waiting and celebrating life's milestones without permanent families," said Greg Kapchar, assistant legislative director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.
Penny Wyman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies stated "Ohio children need permanent families, access to behavorial health services and transitional living services to help them grow from foster care to independence, from childhood to productive adulthood. The General Assembly and the Governor's administration must work together to improve their parenting skills. The cost for care or continued neglect of the next generation of Ohioans will come due and will grow higher and higher the longer we wait."
Representing affected children and families from across the state, the event speakers included youth, families, Senator Eric Kearney and coalition representatives who highlighted the need for services to support Ohio's waiting children and adoptive families. Adoption advocates encouraged participants to thank Senator John Carey and Senator Dale Miller for their sponsorship of Senate Bill 155, a bill which proposes to restore $8 million in funding for adoption services.
"The General Assembly passed a law ion 1998 that said children should have permanent families within two years of removal from their birth family. Slashing funds to Ohio's adoption program makes a mockery of that law, and leaving kids to linger in foster care is not only cruel, it's costly. Passage of S.B. 155 would help right this wrong," said Betsy Johnson, board president of the Ohio Family Care Association.
National Adoption Awareness Month, celebrated annually since 1990, works to encourage gamilies throughout the country to open their hearts and their homes to children in foster care waiting to be adopted.
