Walk down Main Street in downtown Little Rock, and you’ll notice something new: a story of hope, family, and belonging. The Arkansas Department of Human Services and its adoption partner, Project Zero, unveiled a living billboard and lamp post banners to connect residents with the hopeful faces of children in Arkansas who are waiting for adoption.
November is National Adoption Month, which focuses attention on the population of children, teens, and siblings who need permanency with adoptive families. Right now, 178 Arkansas children are waiting for permanent families, according to Director Tiffany Wright of the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services. “If you’ll remember last year, we celebrated a major milestone. Arkansas had fewer than 200 kids waiting to be adopted. The lowest number we’d ever seen. I’m proud to say we’ve maintained that course,” Wright announced.
A “countdown clock” displayed on the glass skywalk above Main Street reflects the number of kids waiting on a permanent home. On lamp posts, there are banners of 32 children, teens, and siblings in foster care who are available for adoption.
Project Zero's Christie Erwin called for a movement to let every Arkansan know about kids waiting to be adopted. “What if today this moment became a movement? What if we took it upon ourselves to make sure that Arkansans every single Arkansan knew about our waiting kids? They're our responsibility. And what if this moment turned to a movement that brought us to zero waiting kids? Not for the sake of the number zero, but for the sake of every single soul, every single precious child and teen, who deserves to have the opportunity to be loved, nurtured, cared for, treasured, and to become all that they were created to be. Would that not be incredible? I want to challenge all of us to stand up to share our waiting kids and make sure that people know about them.”
To learn more and see bios, photos, and short films of waiting children, visit the Arkansas Heart Gallery at www.theprojectzero.org.
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