www.insideHALTON.com |OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, November 4, 2 0 1 6 | 6 Editorial Adoption option During November, Children' s Aid Societies (CAS) across Ontario, including the Hal ton Children's Aid Society, are promoting Adoption Awareness Month to raise awareness about the importance of life-long rela tionships for children and youths in care. "We have seen over and over again how finding the right match between a child and family is one of the m ost beautiful, life-changing events that can happen to a child in care," says Mary Ballantyne, chief executive officer of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid So cieties (OACAS). "But making these matches is very challenging. Dur ing Adoption Awareness Month, we will educate the public about the unique profile of the children in care for whom adoption has been identified as an option. We will also use the month to highlight the strengths and skills that we are looking for in prospective adop tive families in the hopes that we can prevent disap pointment in the application process." One of the biggest misconceptions that prospective families bring to their adoption search is they will be easily matched with a child who is under the age of five. "Child welfare works very differently today," says Morag Demers, Senior Policy Analyst at OACAS. "Sev enty-five percent of Crown Wards in Ontario who have been in care for two years or more are over the age of 14 -- and that age range describes the majority of the children for whom we are hoping to find permanent, long-term relationships." Prospective adoptive families will also find that many of the children who have been identified for adoption are hoping to be adopted with their siblings, and be cause of new "openness" adoption legislation, plan to maintain connections with their families of origin. Many children in the public adoption system also have complex needs, such as behavioural, mental health, and medical issues. Despite these challenges, many families are matched with children in care every year. Last year, 870 chil dren were legally adopted through CAS including 17 through the Halton Children's Aid Society. Educating the public about adoption also includes raising awareness about the variety of other "perma nency options" that are considered when looking for long-term connections for children in care. CAS rec ognizes there are many paths to lifelong connections and there is no one, right answer for every child. Other permanency options for children in care include living with kin, legal custody, and customary care for Indig enous children. All of these options are explored for a child at the same time as adoption. Last year, more than four thousand children found permanency through these alternative permanency ar rangements. -- Guest editorial by Robyn Connolly, board and com munications specialist, Children' s Aid Society of Halton The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters m ust contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 5 0 4 6 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 or via email to ablackburn@ oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. 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