Barco’s Nightingales Foundation is proud to partner in a Facebook Friendraiser with The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.  Through this program, we hope to bring awareness about both of our foundations to 3,000 more fans and to help The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption raise $15,000 in four to six weeks.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption does such important work that we thought a brief introduction would be the spark needed to help with this Friendraiser.

In 1992, after serving as spokesperson for a national adoption awareness campaign, Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s Restaurants, established The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) as with one primary goal: to help every child in foster care find a loving, permanent family. From this start, Dave Thomas and his foundation have worked to make adoption affordable and available throughout the country.  Through the efforts of the Foundation, Congress signed the adoption tax credit into law and the U.S. Postal Service issued the DTFA stamp countrywide.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has become voice of foster care adoption with the goal that every child finds a family.  Believing that every child deserves to live in a safe, loving and permanent family; that no child should linger in foster care or leave the system at age 18 without a permanent family of his or her own; and that every child is adoptable, the Foundation has awarded grants to public and private adoption agencies whose specific goals are to place those children longest in the foster care system into permanent homes.  This is accomplished through free educational resources, awareness campaigns and their Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, a partnership with Wendy’s restaurants that funds adoption professionals to find families for children in foster care.
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids has 194 recruiters working for children throughout every state in the U.S., the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces. The children served by the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program are typically those who have been waiting the longest for an adoptive family and home. By the time they are referred to a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter, nearly 70 percent are older than age 8, 30 percent have had six or more placements, and 50 percent have been in foster care more than four years. Some have never had a plan of adoption and have simply been on a track to age out of foster care at age 18 or 21 without the security and love of a permanent family.
As of January 2014, the Foundation has exceeded 4,000 finalized adoptions of children served by Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, and have served more than 10,000 of these children – many of whom are considered to be unadoptable.  Recently released research from a five-year evaluation of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids shows that children referred to the program are up to three times more likely to get adopted.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption also focuses on making adoption-friendly workplaces where adoption is an affordable option for every working parent.  Accomplished through providing Adoption-Friendly Workplace kits, the goal to provide companies with the support needed to provide adoption benefits to employees.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption works in partnership with local and nationally recognized corporations who assist in funding the Foundations’ programs and grants.  Barco’s Nightingales Foundation is proud to be in partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and their efforts to find every child a permanent home.