MAYOR GIULIANI HOSTS NEW YORK CITY ADOPTION FAIR IN CITY HALL PARK
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Administration For Children's Services (ACS) Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta hosted the 20th Annual New York City Adoption Fair this afternoon in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan. The Adoption Fair provides an opportunity for prospective adoptive parents to learn more about the hundreds of children currently in the foster care system who are in need of adoptive families.
Mayor Giuliani and Commissioner Scoppetta were joined by Paul Vander Velde of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Betty Hinton, an adoptive parent of nine children; 10-year-old Betty Chen, the winner of the Adoption Fair art contest; and Carol Jenkins, News Anchor for Fox 5 News and an adoptive parent herself.
"While the City has just completed a record-breaking 4,130 adoptions during the past year, there are still hundreds of children in foster care who need permanent homes and are immediately available for adoption," Mayor Giuliani said. "The Adoption Fair gives us the opportunity to honor the City's true unsung heroes -- the families who have already adopted children -- and also encourages other families to make that same decision. To adopt a child is to take that child out of poverty and loneliness and introduce him or her to a world of love, hope and possibility. There is no greater achievement."
At today's Adoption Fair, Mayor Giuliani and Commissioner Scoppetta unveiled the "New York City Family Album", a book that features color photographs and biographies of children who are now available for adoption.
Commissioner Scoppetta said, "ACS is committed to finding permanent homes for children in our care. Children need a family for life, not just until they reach 18 and leave foster care. The Adoption Fair is a great event for everyone who has ever considered adopting a child to learn more about the children who are awaiting adoptive families in New York City."
With the assistance of the State Department of Social Services, the New York City Family Court, and a $4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation "Families For Kids" program, ACS has successfully implemented new adoption initiatives that allowed the completion of 4,130 adoptions by the end of fiscal year 1997. This exceeds the record breaking 3,666 adoptions filed last year, and represents a 78% increase over fiscal year 1994, when only 2,310 adoptions were finalized in New York City.
The 20th Annual New York City Adoption Fair was sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation "Families for Kids" program. Other sponsors included the Dave Thomas Foundation and Wendy's International, the State Department of Social Services, AT&T, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
The Fair featured booths with representatives from 55 foster care agencies and orientation sessions in English and Spanish were conducted at the Fair on topics including, "Adopting Older Children" and "Adopting Children with Special Needs." The Adoption Fair also featured music, pony rides, a petting zoo, a giant air castle, face painting, clowns, balloons, cotton candy and refreshments.
For further information regarding adoption, call the City's Adoption Hotline at 212 - 676 - WISH.
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