Dear Colleagues,

I would like to remind you that November is National Adoption Month. National Adoption Month is a collective national effort to raise awareness of the children in foster care waiting to find their forever families.

On November 18, loving families across the nation will celebrate National Adoption Day by finalizing their adoptions of children from foster care. This day will also raise awareness of the many children still waiting to be adopted and I hope will encourage more families in New Jersey to choose adoption. National Adoption Day events in New Jersey will be taking place in Essex/Union, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Cumberland/Salem/Gloucester and Camden.

Please visit our recently updated foster care and adoption Web site: http://www.nj.gov/njfosteradopt. Note that all existing Web sites (such as www.njfoster.org and www.njadopt.org) automatically point to this updated page in a seamless and easy manner. I hope you will visit this site and share it with your friends, family and neighbors who may be considering foster care or adoption.

You will also find attached a "November is National Adoption Month" Web button that we encourage you to post on your Web sites, linking to http://www.nj.gov/njfosteradopt.

I invite each of you to join us in our effort to find more loving, stable homes for our most vulnerable children. If you would like more information or are interested in helping us distribute our foster and adoptive parent recruitment materials, please visit our publications Web site at: http://nj.gov/dcf/news/publications/ or email us at communications@dcf.state.nj.us. You can also request to have a foster care and adoption recruiter present at your events or meetings by emailing gilbert.soto@dcf.state.nj.us or calling 609-633-3991.

Thank you all for your participation in National Adoption Month!  

Kevin M. Ryan
Commissioner
Department of Children and Families