Family Ties

November is National Adoption Month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth from foster care. This year's theme,"You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent," includes a more focused effort that reaches out to the African American community and builds on the Ad Council's new campaign of the Children’s Bureau, the Adoption Exchange Association, and AdoptUsKids.

- On any given day in North America, nearly 600,000 children are in the foster care system, and more than 150,000 of them are available for adoption, just waiting for the right family to find them.

- Each year, one in five children (26,517 in 2006) who are available for adoption turn 18 and leave the foster care system without a family.

- According to a National Adoption Attitudes Survey commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, 63 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of adoption and 78 percent think more should be done to encourage adoption.

- Nearly 40 percent of American adults, or 81.5 million people, have considered adopting a child, according to the National Adoption Attitudes Survey. If just one in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child in foster care would have a permanent family.