November is Adoption Awareness Month
This is the time when the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society (WECAS), along with all other Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario, raise awareness within their communities about the continuing need for adoptive families for the youth and children in their care. Creating permanency for children and youth is a critical point for the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society, as we believe that every child has the right to grow and develop in a supportive family environment.
The primary goal of WECAS is to support children to live safely with their families, when that is not possible the Society looks for an alternate family, preferably known to the child and the family, who can provide a safe, nurturing, and loving environment in which the child can grow and flourish. At times when foster care is necessary, we work hard to safely reunify children with their families. When that is not possible, we strive to ensure those children have safe, loving, and permanent places they can call home and a family that will be theirs forever. There are many permanent paths for children and youth. Adoption is one of a number of options WECAS considers when looking for life-long connections for children in care. Kinship service, kinship in care, customary care, legal custody, and transitioning into adulthood are other permanency options considered when making decisions about what is best setting for children and youth in care. All of these permanency options are based on the recognition that there are many paths to achieving long-lasting relationships and that each path needs to be shaped to meet the needs of the children and youth.
In the Province of Ontario the number of children available for adoption has decreased in the past 7 years, due to the primary goal is delivering services focusing on supporting families of origin to keep children living safely in their own homes.
In 2019/2020 there were a total of 686 adoptions completed through the Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario. In the year of 2019/ 2020 WECAS completed 29 adoptions. The children/youth adopted range in age from infant to 17 years of age.
Our wish is that each one of them finds a forever family who will offer a stable permanent home. We hope that by focusing on adoption during the month of November, we can encourage our community to consider adopting a child or youth so that every child in our community will be a permanent part of a loving and supportive family.
For more information on adoption contact WECAS and ask to speak to an adoption worker. 519-252-1171.
Providing a Family for a Child through Adoption
Adoption is a compassionate gift of family to a child or youth in need of a legal, permanent, loving relationship. Adoption is the legal process that gives children a new family when their birth families are unable to care for them. It is intended to provide children with the stability and lifelong security that comes from a permanent home. Children needing an adoptive family can be from newborn to 18 years of age, and from a variety of cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Many children have siblings and need a family who will adopt them together.