Monroe, Orleans receive funding
for foster care post-adoption services

Assembly Republican Leader Charles H. Nesbitt (139th District) joined Governor George Pataki in announcing over $82,000 in local funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Adoption Incentive Award Program. The awards honor local social services agencies' efforts to help place foster care children with permanent adoptive families.

"Foster children are among the most vulnerable and defenseless populations in our communities," Nesbitt said. "I am proud to be able to join in support of the men and women working night and day to find permanent, loving homes for western New York's neediest children."

Monroe County will receive $77,370 and Orleans County will receive $4,782 in Adoption Incentive Award Program funds. The funding will be provided to local social services districts that increased their adoptions in 2003, and will be used to fund preventive services. The awards were based on the increase in adoptions of children from the foster care system when they could not safely return to their birth parents, including older children and those with special needs.

For information on becoming a foster or adoptive parent, or to review information on children available for adoption, visit the Office of Children and Family Services website at: www.ocfs.state.ny.us/adopt, call 1-800-345-5437, or contact your local department of social services.