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Through the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program, ChildServ finds permanent adoptive homes for children waiting in foster care. Our professionally trained recruiter facilitates the matches of children with appropriate families. ChildServ is Chicagoland’s local adoption partner for Wendy's Wonderful Kids, a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. This program combines the fundraising efforts of Wendy's and its customers, results-driven grant oversight of the Foundation and the talent of seasoned adoption recruiters.

• ChildServ staff develops a strong relationship with each child through monthly meetings to encourage trust and
  openness, and ensures that appropriate supports and resources are provided in order to prepare each child for adoption.
• Our recruiter prepares each child for adoption and assures that the adoptive family is prepared to meet the needs of the child. This involves ongoing education for both the child and his or her adoptive parents.
• We create networks among significant adults in each child’s life, including the caseworker, foster parent, attorney,
  court-appointed special advocate/guardian and maintain regular contact.
• We develop and implement a comprehensive recruitment plan customized for each child.
• Our recruiter conducts comprehensive searches for potential adoptive families and identifies connections to additional resources, such as area churches, social service agencies and civic groups to continue to expand the database of
  contacts, with ongoing follow-up strategies.
• We placed five children in final adoptive homes and matched 14 with potential adoptive families in Fiscal Year 2011.

To find out more about the Wendy's Wonderful Kids program or the Dave Thomas Foundation, visit the web site at www.wendyswonderfulkids.org orwww.davethomasfoundationforadoption.org.

Foster Care Adoption in Illinois

• In 2003, of the 3,230,606 total children in Illinois*, an estimated 21,608 children were in foster care.
• In Illinois, 3,621 children in foster care were available for adoption in 2004.
• In 2004, 2,227 children were adopted from the Illinois foster care system.
• A child in foster care in Illinois is an average of 7.2 years old at his or her adoption finalization.
• Of the children adopted from foster care in Illinois, 100% percent were adopted by their foster parent.

*Child Welfare League of America, National Data Analysis System, http://ndas.cwla.org. Unless otherwise indicated, statistics are provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau's Preliminary FY 2004 Estimates as of June 2006: www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb.