Published: July 17, 2002
preview / download MIRAMAR, Fla. — July 17, 2002 — Less than two months since the debut of Forever Family, permanent homes have been identified for all of the children featured so far. Due to being older, minority and/or part of sibling groups, these children rarely find permanent homes. In fact, many of them historically have aged out of the system and become part of our homeless population.
In addition, nearly 200 potential foster and adoptive parents have attended or plan to attend orientations and/or sign up to take required MAPP classes. The Childrens Home Society in South Florida has confirmed that this substantial increase in interest is directly linked to the seven Forever Family segments that have run to date.
As a result of the Rilya Wilson case, the 5 year-old who has been missing for over 18 months, Florida Governor Jeb Bush formed a blue ribbon panel to study the states foster care system and to make recommendations for improving it. During a news conference where several of those recommendations were made public, that same blue ribbon panel lauded NBC 6/WTVJ as a positive example of the medias potential impact on the problem.
Working with the Childrens Home Society and Baptist Childrens Hospital, NBC 6 is taking a multi-faceted approach to the challenge of finding homes for the thousands of children waiting to be adopted. In addition to the weekly news segments, a series of Public Service Announcements are airing and nbc6.net offers archived Forever Family segments. Also, the website provides links to adoption sites and resources, and to pictures of children who are available for adoption.
