The 2011 Collaboration Prize Winner
Adoption Coalition of Texas
Nonprofit child-placing agencies joined together to create the Adoption Coalition of Texas, a central nonprofit organization with the sole mission of finding forever families for children languishing in the foster care system. In order to increase the number of adoptions – especially among hard-to-place teens, sibling groups, and minority children – the partner agencies pooled their efforts through the coalition to create a seamless, child-centered system for families interested in adoption. As a result of these efforts, the number of annual adoptions has increased from 370 to well over 700. Five well-respected child-serving agencies and the Texas Department of Child Protective Services formed the Adoption Coalition. Agency executives sit on an Advisory Board of Directors and the Austin Community Foundation provides financial accounting, grants management, human resources, and other back-office support.
Bruce Thompson, Executive Director, Adoption Coalition of Texas