THE Western Trust is supporting National Adoption Week from October 17-23 by highlighting the need for adoptive placements for children in need of a forever family.
This year’s campaign aims to help people understand what the process of becoming an adoptive parent is and the type of children in need of adoptive homes.
Within the last year the Western Trust have placed a significant number of children for adoption and urgently need to recruit more adoptive parents for children who are becoming available for adoption in the near future.
A Trust spokesperson said: “We also need adoptive parents for children over 4 years, children with disabilities and sibling groups where one of the children could be older possibly over 5 years.”
Inviting people to come along to the information events to support National Adoption Week Catherine McKevitt, Western Trust Service Manager Adoption and Permanency Team said:
“Information events have been organised on Friday 21 October 2016 at 2pm in Clooney Hall, Derry and on Wednesday 9 November 2016 at 10am in Niall Hamilton Suite, Fire Station, Omagh.
“We would encourage people to come along to find out more about becoming an adoptive parent.
“Many adoptive parents have found taking this first step the hardest and these sessions will provide people with general information about the process and children available for adoption.
“Adoption and Permanency Social workers will be on hand to answer any individual questions people may have about adoption.”
She added: “The world of adoption is changing and for some children, temporary care is needed until it is possible for them to be returned to their families.
“However, there is a growing number of children unfortunately that are unable to live with their birth families.
!Adoption is a challenging but very rewarding route to becoming a parent.
“For children unable to return to their families, adoption provides them with a sense of belonging and a family for life.
“In addition to seeking a range of adoptive parents for children, the Trust are also looking to recruit concurrent carers as part of a regional project ‘Home on Time (HOT)’.
“This is an innovative concurrent care scheme which aims to speed up the process for young looked after children to either return home to their parents or to be adopted by their carers.
“This project has been running for a year and has proven very successful in achieving permanency for young children in a timely way.”
If you would like to find out more about adoption, please contact the Western Trust Adoption Team on:
- Limavady, Derry and Strabane area: Roisin Lynch, Social Work Manager Adoption T: (028) 7131 4226 or email: [email protected]
- Omagh and Fermanagh area: Anita Birney, Social Work Manager Adoption T: (028) 8283 5114 or email: [email protected]
Please visit the Regional Adoption and Fostering website on www.adoptionandfostering.hscni.net or telephone 0800 0720 137 for more information and support in considering adoption or fostering.
You can also download information packs, read profiles of children waiting for a home and read how adoption has made a lasting difference to young people.
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