Award announcement coincides with start of National Adoption Day
ANNAPOLIS, MD (Nov. 17, 2016) —The Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services (AACDSS) has won a highly coveted Adoption Excellence Award for its efforts to achieve the goals of safety, permanency, and wellbeing of children in foster care.
Adoption Excellence Awards are bestowed annually by the U.S. Administration for Children and Families’ Children’s Bureau “to 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.”
This is the department’s first Adoption Excellence Award. The department’s award is for the category “Child Welfare/Judicial Systemic Change.” In 2016, only two programs in the entire country were selected to receive this honor.
“This award reflects our continued commitment to working with the community to ensure children grow up in safe, loving families,” said AACDSS Director Carnitra White. “Our team works hard every day recruiting foster parents who are able to meet the needs of children in care. More important than the award are the many children who now have permanent families who love and support them.”
Over the last three years, AACDSS exceeded its state and federal adoption goals while adopting more children into family homes here in Anne Arundel County. For the year ending June 30, 2016, a record 24 children were adopted from foster care _ and 22 of those (92%) were adopted from Anne Arundel County foster homes. Children entering foster care typically have better outcomes when they can remain in homes in their own communities, attend the same schools and retain relationships with family and friends.
To help foster families better understand and support permanency for children entering foster care, the department developed a more trauma informed approach to Parent Resource Information Development and Education Training (PRIDE). The Adoption Excellence Award recognizes steps the department has taken to work more collaboratively and make stronger matches between the children and their families, as well as providing families with more supportive and clinical services.
The award announcement coincides with National Adoption Month , which raises awareness about children in foster care waiting for permanent families. Twentythree children and teens in foster care in Anne Arundel County are waiting to be adopted. To learn more, visit adoptuskids.org.
See of award photo below:
