Participate in Top 100 Adoption-Friendly Workplaces Survey

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption announced an online survey to determine the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America. The list of the nation's top 100 companies will be released on May 1, 2007.

"Roughly 64 percent of Americans have had some personal experience with adoption," explained Rita Soronen, executive director of the Foundation. "This survey lets people celebrate their employers and make them eligible for the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces List."

Human resource executives and employees at companies with adoption benefits are encouraged to take the two-minute survey at www.AdoptionFriendlyWorkplace.org. The survey deadline to make the 2007 list is January 15th. In addition to online participants, 30,000 people from small, medium, and large employers will be surveyed by mail.

The top 100 employers will be ranked based on their adoption benefits, such as the amount of financial reimbursement and paid or unpaid leave available to employees who adopt. The top ten by size, industry and state will also be celebrated, and special recognition will be given to companies who support the cause of adoption and adoptive families in other ways.

Soronen said more than 150,000 foster care children are available for adoption in North America - 114,000 of them in the United States. "Most of these children will spend nearly four years in the foster care system before they are adopted. We're hopeful the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces List will heighten the awareness of adoption and the companies that help make the process even easier," she added.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a non-profit public charity dedicated to dramatically increasing the number of adoptions of foster care children in North America. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's and an adopted child, created the Foundation in 1992 in support of the vision that every child needs a permanent home and a loving family. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption focuses on increasing foster care adoption awareness while supporting model adoption service programs and is committed to ensuring that adoption from the foster care system in streamlined, affordable and accessible to any family wanting to adopt.

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore.