News
The Bay Area Heart Gallery: Connecting Hearts…Building Families
By: Joan Miller, Staff Development Specialist
What is the Heart Gallery?
Heart Galleries are professional-level photography exhibits that feature the portraits of children in foster care waiting for adoptive families. There have been over 60 exhibits in 45 states across the country. Community volunteers, photographers, and artists have built this grassroots effort.
How is Contra Costa County involved?
The new Bay Area Heart Gallery will highlight children waiting for adoption in the Bay Area and focus on youth growing up in foster care who need permanent lifelong connections and families. Contra Costa County youth will be featured in this stunning exhibit of 50 enormous photographs that will put a “face” on children and youth in need of both adoption and permanence, and will include photographs of some families who are caring for them.
What is the Goal?
To create a visually stunning exhibit of portraits and stories that capture the spirit of Bay Area children and youth waiting to be adopted or connected to committed loving families.
To inspire Bay Area residents to be potential adoptive or foster parents, or permanent connections, for youth whose parent’s rights have been terminated or whose parents are not actively working toward a Family Reunification plan.
To raise community awareness of the needs for permanency for foster children.
Where can you see the Bay Area Heart Gallery now?
Alameda County
December 4, 2006
through January 3, 2007
Oakland Public Library
Main Branch
14th Street and Lakeside Drive
Oakland, CA
Mon/Tues/Sat: 10:00AM - 5:30PM Wed/Thurs: Noon - 8:00PM
Fridays: Noon - 5:30PM
Sundays: 1:00PM - 5:00P
Marin County
Now through Jan 20, 2007
Marin County Civic Center
3501 Civic Center Drive
First Floor Art Gallery
San Rafael, CA
Hours:
Mon – Fri: 9:00AM - 5:00PM
Why is there a need?
When you hear how many children are in foster care, you may be startled by the surprising figures. Here’s the breakdown:
-Nationally, 500,000 children are in foster care
-In California, 83,234 children are in foster care
-In the Bay Area, 10,250 children are in foster care
Surprised? Wait. Nearly half of all children in foster care are over the age of 10, and 20,000 of those youth turn 18 while living in foster care each year. In California alone, 4,000 youth turn 18 and age out of the system annually.
Of the foster children who aged out of foster care and have been “on their own” for three or more years:
-25-44% have experienced homelessness
-Only 54% have earned their high school diploma
-14% graduated from a 4-year college
-Only 10% are able to support themselves
-62% were not able to maintain employment for a year
-38% were coping with serious emotional problems
Contra Costa County has 117 children who have been freed for adoption, but have not yet been adopted. While most of these children are assigned to an adoption worker and have an identified permanent placement, many are still awaiting a lifelong connection with a caring adult.
Addressing these issues in our everyday casework and recruiting foster parents is the tradition way to improve service, but we’ve reached a point where we need to get creative about bringing attention to this critical issue. To that end, Contra Costa County Children and Family Services recently became involved in the Heart Gallery Project.
Heart Galleries across the country have helped to find permanent, loving homes for hundreds of children in foster care. Since its premier in New Mexico in 2001, the Heart Gallery has raised general awareness about children and youth in foster care and helped to recruit prospective adoptive parents and families willing to provide children with permanent connections.
Please feel free to contact our Recruitment Specialist at (866) 313-7788 with questions or to discuss a specific child you think may be a good candidate.