Finding a Forever Home: Illinois Center for Adoption & Permanency Launches Local Campaign
Promoting Foster Care Adoption in Bloomington-Normal
Bloomington, Illinois ‒ Meet Destiny. Like many teenagers,
she is thinking about her future and starting to imagine life
as an adult. What does Destiny want for herself? Two
things, mostly. The first is to become a special education
teacher so she can help children, and the second is to find a
family she can call her own.
Destiny is currently living with a foster family in central
Illinois, and maintains regular phone contact with members
of her birth family. She is happy, outgoing, and optimistic
about her future, but she still wants what other young people her age take for granted: a loving forever
family that will guide her though adolescence and into adulthood.
What can be done to help teenagers like Destiny find the families they need and deserve? A big part of
the equation is raising awareness, which is why the Illinois Center for Adoption & Permanency (iCAP) has
launched a new public service campaign in collaboration with AdoptUSKids and the Ad Council. The
campaign is designed to reassure prospective
adoptive families that they “don’t have to be
perfect to be a perfect parent.”
What is unique about this campaign (as opposed to
similar campaigns in previous years) is that it
features local websites and phone numbers geared
toward families in various central Illinois cities. For
example, families in Bloomington-Normal can visit
www.AdoptBloomingtonKids.org or call (309) 4080200 for more information.
iCAP is also the administrator of the Adoption Information Center of Illinois (AICI) and is very involved in
the recruitment of families to find homes for children waiting for a permanent family. All children listed
with AICI are foster children in Illinois who are in need of an adoptive foster home and typically have
challenging behaviors or medical needs, they are older teens, and/or they are part of a sibling group that
are trying to be adopted together. Families who are interested in adopting can also go on the AICI
website and search for children. Adoptive families can list themselves with AICI and foster
care/adoption agencies may contact the licensing worker for the family to discuss the possibility of a
match. One of these agencies is The Baby Fold in Normal, Illinois, which also utilizes AICI when foster
children need permanency and families are looking for children to adopt.
Starting in early 2016, iCAP will encourage media outlets in central Illinois to promote the campaign by
airing TV and radio commercials, and posting notices online. Billboards for the campaign started going
up in October 2015. With the support of its partners, iCAP hopes to secure families for Destiny and for
the hundreds of other children in central Illinois who are waiting for their forever families.
Contact:
Dixon Galvez-Searle
Communications Coordinator
Illinois Center for Adoption & Permanency
120 W. Madison, Suite 800
Chicago, IL 60602
P: (312) 462-7227
E: dgsearle@illinoiscap.org
The Illinois Center for Adoption & Permanency (iCAP) is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that advocates for children in
the Illinois child welfare system. The mission of iCAP is to secure and support loving families for children in need of permanent
homes. The organization is motivated by the belief that every child deserves a loving family, and works tirelessly to match
interested families with children who are waiting to be adopted. To learn more about iCAP, please visit illinoiscap.org.