CHICAGO – November is Adoption Awareness Month in Illinois, a time to acknowledge the thousands of families across the state that have opened their hearts and homes to children in need, promote adoption awareness and celebrate the connection every Illinoisan has to adoption.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Illinois Adoption Advisory Council’s “What’s your connection?” statewide campaign encourages the public to share their connection to adoption by printing coloring sheets with their children, placing them in windows or on doors and sharing photos on social media.
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“November is usually a month filled with hugs and laughter in courtrooms as adoptions are finalized and new families are created,” said Illinois DCFS Acting Director Marc D. Smith. “Although those events can’t take place this year, we can still acknowledge and celebrate the connection each of us has to adoption, whether it’s by sharing your family’s adoption journey on social media, creating an Adoption Month background for your Zoom meetings or coloring a sign with your child and putting it in your window for your neighbors to see.”
Last fiscal year 1,523 Illinois children were adopted into permanent, loving families. Today there are over 18,000 youth in care waiting for a family and place to call home. To learn more about some of them, visit the Heart Gallery of Illinois at https://greenlightfamilyservices.org/heartgalleryofil/. For more information about becoming an adoptive parent, visit www2.Illinois.gov/dcfs and click on “Loving Homes” then on “Become a Foster or Adoptive Parent.”
To download the “What’s Your Connection?” sign templates and logos, click here. Take pictures of your signs and share them on social media with these hashtags: #whatsyourconnection, #adoptionmonth and #adoption. Be sure to tag @illinoisDCFS.
About the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Founded in 1964, DCFS is responsible for protecting children from abuse or neglect by responding to calls received on the Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-25-ABUSE (1-800-252-2873). With the goal of keeping children safe, DCFS strengthens and supports families with a wide range of services. When keeping a child safe means removing them from the home, DCFS makes every effort to reunite them with their family. When the best interest of the child makes this impossible, DCFS is committed to pursuing adoption by loving families to provide children with a safe and permanent home. DCFS is also responsible for licensing and monitoring of all Illinois child welfare agencies.
