Matching Monday | 100 Best Adoption-Friendly ... - The R House

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Just about every Monday, I feature children who are waiting to be adopted through the foster care program. Each child has been approved by the heart galleries that host them to appear on my blog. Not every heart gallery from every state has given us permission to post their waiting children (some we can only link to, some we can use photos and some change their minds constantly about whether or not we are allowed to help in their outreach efforts) ?we are working on that. Brenda of Another Small Adventure really does all the work on this. She knows foster care waaay better than I do and I am grateful for all her help.

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The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption released its sixth?annual?100 Best?Adoption-Friendly Workplaces List?today recognizing organizations?nationwide for their adoption benefits.

Twenty years ago, Dave Thomas, an adoptee and the founder of Wendy?s Restaurants, established the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption with the vision of a safe and loving home for every child. Today, his vision is celebrated with the release of the sixth annual 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces List recognizing organizations nationwide for their adoption benefits.

The Wendy?s Company is No. 1 on the Foundation?s list, with a combination of up to $25,300 in adoption assistance and up to six weeks of paid adoption leave. (Editor?s note: The Foundation is not an affiliate of The Wendy?s Company.)

?Our founder Dave Thomas was adopted from foster care as a child and felt a strong personal tie to children still waiting in the system. Under Dave?s direction, Wendy?s became a model for other companies to follow by offering adoption benefits in 1990,? said Emil Brolick, president and CEO of The Wendy?s Company. ?We are honored to earn the distinction of Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace in America ? all because of Dave?s passion and commitment to making the process easier and more affordable for families.?

Wendy?s employee Brenda Overturf has used the adoption benefit twice. Overturf and her husband adopted two children from the U.S. foster care system nine years ago, when the siblings were 9 and 10 years old, and in 2011, they adopted three more siblings from foster care.

?Our children always wanted more brothers and sisters, and my husband and I were moved to help older children who might age out of foster care and be left on their own,? Overturf said. ?Adopting from foster care is affordable, so we did not use Wendy?s financial benefit, but the six weeks of paid leave was invaluable. We needed the time to get to know our kids as individuals, and to prepare them for school.?

?The formation of a family comes with both joys and challenges,? said Rita Soronen, president and CEO of the Foundation. ?It is critical for parent and child to have the opportunity to adjust when a child joins his or her adoptive home. We?d like to say thank you to the employers who provide family-friendly work environments and offer benefits to make adoption more affordable for families who open their hearts and homes to a child.?

Adoption benefits are one of the easiest benefit policies a company can offer and are becoming more popular. In Aon Hewitt?s annual survey of 1,000 major U.S. employers, only 12 percent offered a financial adoption benefit in 1990. This year, 56 percent of employers reported offering a financial adoption benefit.

If your organization does not offer adoption benefits, order the Foundation?s free kit that makes it easy to propose and establish an adoption benefits policy in your workplace at adoptionfriendlyworkplace.org.

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Interview with Rita Soronen, president and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

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Oh man. It?s not everyday that you get to ask someone like Ms. Soronen the questions you?ve always wondered about foster care. Her responses had me in tears.

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There are many people who would make incredible foster parents and who are aching so badly for children in their homes,?however there is a fear that hopeful parents would not be able to handle the children they have come to love walk out of their homes?upon reunification. What advice do you have for them? Is it worth the heartache risk? How do you move on?

Being a foster parent is such an honorable, but sometimes challenging undertaking. Children that come into foster homes?have been?abused or neglected and they are hurting, lonely and scared. The unconditional acceptance, nurturing and stability that a foster family?provides may be one of the times that a child cherishes and holds on to as he or she makes the difficult journey through the child?welfare system.?

Each foster care placement is unique and a child may come into a family for days, weeks or years. The first goal is to?help stabilize the child while the family is working to have the child back. Learning to let go can be very difficult, but knowing that?you have provided a compassionate home that may just be the difference between hope and despair for a child is worth the effort.?What does not leave at the point of reunification is the knowledge that you have made a difference in the life of a child.

What is the best part of becoming a foster parent?

To take in a scared and hurting child and provide a compassionate family experience for him or her is a rewarding effort. And this is?never just about what a foster parent can give to a child; we hear time and again from foster parents that they grow from the?experience?and the more love they give, the more they receive in return.

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Why would companies want to make it onto the Top 100 List?

Being an adoption-friendly workplace builds workplace loyalty, shows that a company is family-friendly and says loud and clear that?if benefits are provided to families formed through birth, the fair and right thing to do is to also provide benefits to families formed?through adoption. For businesses, being on a ?Top? list enhances the company?s image and drives competition for the best?employees.

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Source: http://www.therhouse.com/matching-monday-100-best-adoption-friendly-workplaces/

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