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-Press Release, Granville County Government
During the month of November, the Granville County Department of Social Services joins in the observance of Adoption Awareness Month, a time to celebrate adoption and to help children find permanent homes. The 2020 theme for National Adoption Month is “Engage Youth: Listen and Learn.”
Each year, more than 400,000 children and youth are in foster care, with 100,000+ waiting for adoption. Many are at risk of aging out of the foster care system without permanent family connections or are children with physical, mental and emotional disabilities.
According to information shared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
- The average age of children in foster care is 8.5;
- Almost 200,000 children in foster care in 2019 had been placed with a non-relative;
- Neglect is the number one circumstance for children being removed from the home (63 percent);
- Nearly 18,000 youth age out of foster care before being adopted; and
- Five percent of children and youth waiting for adoption spend five or more years waiting for a family.
The Granville County Department of Social Services can help those interested in adoption to navigate through the process of providing a permanent home for a child in foster care. Homeownership is not required, and adoptive parents can be married, single, divorced or widowed. The cost of adopting a foster child with special needs will be provided by the child’s agency.
For more details, contact Laverne Smith, Adoption Specialist for Granville County’s Department of Social Services, at (919) 603-3348 or at laverne.smith@granvillecounty.org.