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The Adoption Council of Canada (ACC) and the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa are partnering to launch the first Canadian Heart Gallery. This is an exciting pilot project in Canada dedicated to finding permanent homes for children and youth in foster care, beginning with those in Ottawa.

What is the Heart Gallery?

The Heart Gallery is a travelling photographic exhibit created to attract potential parents who will commit to adopting children and youth waiting in foster care. The Heart Gallery’s mission is to use the power of photography to capture the individuality and dignity of waiting children, to raise public awareness about their needs, to obtain support to meet those needs, and to find permanent homes for them.

The Heart Gallery project originated in the United States. U.S. jurisdictions that have created their own Heart Galleries have seen their adoption rates climb by 25 percent, overall. Ottawa is the first place in Canada to use this approach to recruiting families for our waiting children. We have 30,000 children and youth in Canada who need permanent families - 9,200 in Ontario alone.

In Ottawa, 97 children and youth in care of the Children’s Aid Society need permanent families. Of those children and youth, 79 percent are aged 11 and older.

The Importance of Permanency for Youth in Care

Canadian researchers are increasingly documenting the importance of permanency for children and youth. One recent Canadian study indicates that within 2-4 years of leaving foster care, more than 50 percent of youth without a permanent family connection have not completed high school. Fewer than 50 percent are employed, 60 percent of females have given birth and fewer than 20 percent are self-supporting. The societal costs, and the costs to our social services networks, of not finding families for these young people, are mounting.

Hope for a Better Future

There is good news. The permanency of adoption dramatically improves the quality of life of children and youth who leave the child welfare system. Children and youth who are adopted scored higher on IQ tests than their non-adopted siblings or peers, and performed significantly better in both academic and social settings. Adopted children and youth are also more likely to have increased involvement in positive, structured activities, such as sports, music and community organizations, and tend to have a positive self-concept and a higher level of caring behaviours (i.e. volunteering).

Launch

The Heart Gallery of Ottawa project will launch in April 2010. The event will take place in Ottawa, Ontario. We will be posting more information as the launch date approaches.

How YOU Can Help

We are in need of project funds to ensure that the Heart Gallery project is a success. Please consider donating to the cause.

Together, we will find permanent families for waiting children in foster care in Ottawa. This is the first step to changing the face of adoption in our community, and eventually, across the country.

Contact

For more information about this initiative, please contact Sarah Pedersen, acting executive director of the Adoption Council of Canada, at 1-888-54-ADOPT or sarah@adoption.ca.