Deadline: 30-Jun-23
The Administration for Children & Families is seeking nominations for the Adoption Excellence Awards to recognize outstanding accomplishments in achieving permanency for America’s children waiting in foster care.
The Department will honor States, agencies, organizations, businesses, courts, individuals, and families that have demonstrated excellence in providing stable, permanent homes for their nation’s children in foster care.
An annual program that grew out of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, these awards honor States, local agencies, private organizations, courts, businesses, individuals, and families making key contributions to increasing the number of children from foster care who are adopted or placed in other permanent homes.
Award Categories
- Family Contributions – recognizes the personal contribution of a family or parent(s) who has significantly impacted the life of a child(ren) adopted from foster care. These families may have provided exceptional care for children or may have influenced development of better programs and services for children adopted from foster care.
- Individuals/Professionals – recognizes individual contributions to promote the adoption of children from foster care.
- Business Contributions/Initiatives – recognizes the promotion of adoption for children from foster care through activities such as partnerships, sponsorships, donations, charitable support, or volunteerism.
- Media/Social Media/Public Awareness of Adoption from Foster Care – recognizes unique efforts that have increased the community’s understanding of the need for permanency for children in foster care.
- Child Welfare/Judicial Systemic Change – recognizes significant strategies that have resulted in fewer children coming into care or expedited the movement of children from foster care to permanency.
- Examples include:
- Strategies that significantly decreased the length of time that children wait for adoption from foster care,
- Strategies which significantly increased adoptions of older children and youth from foster care,
- Increased/successful inter-jurisdictional adoptions and overcame inter-jurisdictional barriers to adoption for children in foster care,
- Efforts to support families who adopt and promote the stability of those adoptions through unique methods,
- Diligent recruitment and kinship placement strategies that increase safe and stable adoptions of children of color from foster care
- Other strategies that have significantly contributed to an increase in the number of children adopted from foster care.
- Strategies that decrease disproportionality and expedite time to permanency.
- Examples include:
Eligibility Criteria
- Category 1: Only families/parents may be nominated for this category
- Category 2: Only individuals may be nominated for this category.
- Category 3 & 4: Any of the following may be nominated for categories 3 through 5:
- State & Tribal Agencies
- Local public agencies
- Child welfare organizations
- Businesses
- Foundations
- Faith-based organizations
- Media
- Category 5
- Courts
- State legislatures
- Universities
- Tribal courts and governments
- Advocacy organizations
- Community-based organizations.
For more information, visit Adoption Excellence Awards.