This week, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) released findings from a five year study led by Child Trends that shows their child-focused Wendy’s Wonderful Kids (WWK) recruitment model is successful.  The study found that there is up to a three-fold increase in adoptions among youth in foster care when using this model.  Read the full press release to learn more about the study and findings.

The research shows that:

• Children in foster care served by WWK recruiters are more than 1.7 times more likely to be adopted than those not served by WWK.
• For older children, the impact of the WWK model is greater and increases with age:  For children referred to WWK at age 8, the likelihood of adoption was one-and-one-half times higher; For children referred at age 11, the likelihood was two times higher; and For children referred at age 15, the likelihood of adoption was three times higher.
• Children with mental health disorders served by WWK are three times more likely to find forever families than those not served by WWK.

“Multiple research studies have found that adoption represents a cost savings to taxpayers, with one indicating that each dollar spent on the adoption of a child from U.S. foster care yields three dollars in benefits to society, demonstrating that investment in adoption not only benefits the child, but society as well,” the press release by DTFA states.

Read the research findings, executive summary, and access the fact sheet here: http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/read-the-research/