Domestic Adoption » Today's Child
CHOICES Adoption & Counselling is excited to be working in partnership with the Ministry of Children and Family Development Adoption Teams on Vancouver Island, Surrounded by Cedar Child & Family Service, and Caring for First Nations Children Society in Victoria. Our collective goal is to raise the public awareness of the need for adoptive families for children who are registered and eligible for adoption in British Columbia. There are so many children waiting for permanent families.
ADAM HAS FOUND HIS FOREVER FAMILY! 
Today’s Child appears in the Times Colonist every third Sunday of every month. It is also in Island Parent and in various publications across Vancouver Island.
If you are interested in finding out more about a child or sibling group waiting for a permanent family, call Holly at CHOICES Adoption 1 888 479 9811.
You can be a parent ask me how!
CHOICES is excited about Today’s Child, and has enjoyed past collaboration with MCFD in various adoption initiatives. We look forward to continued partnerships with the Ministry, Surrounded by Cedar Child & Family Services and Caring for First Nations Children Society, working towards a common goal of a family for every child in BC.
For Immediate Release
May 26, 2011
Contact: Holly Allen
250 479 9811
holly@choicesadoption.ca
CHOICES Adoption collaborates with the Ministry of Children and Family Development to pilot a new project on Vancouver Island to find permanent families for children.
Today’s Child is an innovative project that uses media to find families for BC’s most vulnerable citizens, children waiting in foster care. Monthly profiles of children available for adoption will be shared through newspaper, radio and various mediums. To protect children, pseudonyms are used and no identifying information is shared.
CHOICES Adoption, Ministry of Children and Family Development, Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services and Caring for First Nations Children Society collaboratively developed this project to find permanent families for BC’s children.
The Victoria Foundation has been a great support of this project through the Lex Reynolds Adoption and Permanency Trust Fund. They have been instrumental in getting this initiative started.
The project is being piloted on Vancouver Island and set to move province wide in 2012.
Currently, there are over 1200 children waiting to be adopted in BC. We know that children and youth do better when they have a stable, loving permanent home to call their own – and that’s why campaigns like Today’s Child are so important.
Today’s Child was created by Helen Allen, a journalist in Toronto, Ontario.
The idea came to fruition in BC when CHOICES pitched the idea to the Director of Adoption in April 2010. Collaboration ensued with Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services and Caring for First Nations Children Society to work on an additional but separate initiative for Aboriginal children waiting for permanency in their communities.
CHOICES Adoption will celebrate the launch of Today’s Child with families and community on May 26, 2011 at our open house and AGM, 850 Blanshard Street from 5:30pm to 7pm. The public is welcome.
History
Today’s Child was started in Ontario in June 1964 by a reporter named Helen Allen who worked for the Toronto Telegram. The idea came from a recognition that the public was not aware of the number of children who were waiting in foster care for a permanent adoptive family. Today’s Child is a combination of a photo and news story (with pseudonym for the protection of privacy) relating the situation of a child or sibling group available for adoption. The first child featured was a 15 month old girl who was symbolically named Hope. The article saw a response from over 40 families who were interested in adopting the little girl, and the children who were featured in the following weeks were met with a similar encouraging response. Hundreds of families came forward expressing an interest in providing these waiting children with a permanent family. Older and harder to place children were also featured, and were successfully placed in adoptive families. In the first year of Today’s Child, 80% of the children who were profiled in the Telegram were placed in adoptive families. The Toronto Star picked up Today’s Child in 1971 and has been running columns ever since, with high placement rates. Today’s Child has helped thousands of children find adoptive families, and is now also available online.
The Adoption Council of Canada features a program called Canada’s Waiting Kids, where children across Canada who are eligible and waiting for adoption are profiled with the hope of finding a permanent family. Their success rate for finding adoptive families for children who are profiled is approximately 84% nationwide. Alberta and Ontario continue to have high placement rates through their respective programs, Wednesday’s Child and Today’s Child. Profiles of BC children waiting in care are currently available online, and with advertising through Today’s Child, will be more accessible to the public, with the hope that more families will come forward to adopt BC’s waiting children.
The Adoption Council of Canada estimates approximately 30,000 children are registered for adoption across the country. There are more children entering the foster care system each day, many of whom will not be able to return to their birth families. Increasing the public’s awareness of this need through local media will increase opportunities for these children to find permanent families.
The protection of privacy for both the child and birth family is of great importance to us and will be maintained. The best interests of the child remain paramount for all of BC’s waiting children.