Celebrating National Adoption Day with game changing results.
In Honor of National Adoption Day, Gateway salutes all of the brave and proud parents who have chosen to build their families through adoption. All families are unique and special, and each adoptive family has a heart journey all its own.
Especially near and dear to us are the families who welcome a foster child into their forever home, or who adopt to keep a child from entering foster care. One of our foster youth adopted this summer said it best of all:
“Gateway’s work is important, because I want other kids to be able to feel like me. The day I walked into her [foster parent’s] house, I knew I could call her mom. Now I get to call her mom forever.”
That’s our mission in a nutshell: to be sure that every child has someone to call “mom” or “dad” – forever.
Like rays of sunshine after the clouds, Gateway celebrates 2020 as a year when:
- 1 in 5 foster youth in Therapeutic Foster Care were adopted – even in a pandemic!
- More than 60 foster youth returned safely to their families. Lives forever changed!
- Gateway’s number of licensed foster parents increased 10% - so we will be able to keep celebrating adoptions in future years!
“It is not an exaggeration when we say these services are life saving,” says Gateway’s President and CEO Kate O’Day. "But these things don't just happen. During this crisis, we invest heavily in the health and safety of our people. We continuously provide Personal Protective Equipment, supplies, support and health protection information to our foster parents and staff. We let them know again and again, how precious their wellbeing is to our mission of “forever families” for all children. These outcomes are achieved through our combined and focused efforts.”
None of this is possible without our courageous foster parents, talented staff, fearless Board of Directors, and generous funding partners, that include:
- United Way of Central Alabama
- Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham
- Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation
- State of Alabama's COVID-19 Nonprofit Assistance Fund
Thank you for your partnership, commitment, and investment in Gateway’s mission. We look forward to sharing even more successes as we wrap up this most memorable year!