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The Obama Administration Celebrates Adoption, Recognizes National Adoption Month

Summary: 
Michael Wear--Executive Assistant to the Executive Director of The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Joshua DuBois--shares the President's Proclamation on National Adoption Month, and highlights recent Administration events and efforts to celebrate adoption.

On Monday, The White House released a Presidential Proclamation on National Adoption Month. In the Proclamation, the President lifts up adoption as a positive and powerful force in the lives of millions of Americans and children around the globe. The President also focuses on the 114,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption who deserve a safe, loving and permanent home. You can learn more about foster care adoption by visiting http://www.adoptuskids.org.

This Administration has a strong record of supporting adoption. Just last month, the Department of Health and Human Services hosted a webcast to highlight the important and positive changes to the Adoption Tax Credit as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Tina Tchen, Executive Director of the Office of Public Engagement, and Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, participated in this webcast along with other Administration officials, advocates and adoptive families. Also, this past Monday, the State Department released a video from Secretary Clinton, a longtime advocate for international and domestic adoption, in recognition of National Adoption Month. 

This Administration is proud to stand by adoptive families and children in need of homes, and we will continue to find new and innovative ways to support adoption and those in foster care.

The President’s Proclamation on National Adoption Month is below: 

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The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

November 01, 2010

Presidential Proclamation--National Adoption Month

    Giving a child a strong foundation -- a home, a family to love, and a safe place to grow -- is one of life's greatest and most generous gifts.  Through adoption, both domestic and international, Americans from across our country have provided secure environments for children who need them, and these families have benefited from the joy an adopted child can bring.  Thanks to their nurturing and care, more young people have been able to realize their potential and lead full, happy lives.  This year, we celebrate National Adoption Month to recognize adoption as a positive and powerful force in countless American lives, and to encourage the adoption of children from foster care.

    Currently, thousands of children await adoption or are in foster care, looking forward to permanent homes.  These children can thrive, reach their full potential, and spread their wings when given the loving and firm foundation of family.  Adoptive families come in many forms, and choose to adopt for different reasons:  a desire to grow their family when conceiving a child is not possible, an expression of compassion for a child who would otherwise not have a permanent family, or simply because adoption has personally touched their lives.  For many Americans, adoption has brought boundless purpose and joy to their lives.  We must do all we can to break down barriers to ensure that all qualified caregivers have the ability to serve as adoptive families.

    This year, on November 20, families, adoption advocates, policymakers, judges, and volunteers will celebrate the 11th annual National Adoption Day in communities large and small.  National Adoption Day is a day of hope and happiness when courthouses finalize the adoptions of children out of foster care.  Last year, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was honored to preside over a ceremony celebrating two foster care adoptions as part of my Administration's support for this important day.

    Adoptive families are shining examples of the care and concern that define our great Nation.  To support adoption in our communities, my Administration is working with States to support families eager to provide for children in need of a place to call home.  The landmark Affordable Care Act increases and improves the Adoption Tax Credit, enabling adoption to be more affordable and accessible.  As part of the Adoption

    Incentives program, States can also receive awards for increasing adoptions and the number of children adopted from foster care.  AdoptUsKids, a project of the Department of Health and Human Services, offers technical support to States, territories, and tribes to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families; provides information and assistance to families considering adoption; and supports parents already on that journey.  I encourage all Americans to visit AdoptUsKids.org or ChildWelfare.gov/Adoption for information and resources on adoption, including adoption from foster care.

    As we observe National Adoption Month, we honor the loving embrace of adoptive families and the affirming role of adoption in the lives of American families and our country.  Let us all commit to supporting our children in any way that we are able -- whether opening our hearts and homes through adoption, becoming foster parents to provide quality temporary care to children in crisis, supporting foster and adoptive families in our communities and places of worship, mentoring young people in need of guidance, or donating time to helping children in need.  Working together, we can shape a future of hope and promise for all of our Nation's children.

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2010 as National Adoption Month.  I call upon all Americans to observe this month by answering the call to find homes for every child in America in need of a permanent and caring family, as well as to support the families who care for them.

    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

                            BARACK OBAMA

 

Michael Wear serves as Executive Assistant to the Executive Director of The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.