Opening your heart and home to a child is a wonderful and life-changing experience for parent and child alike. There are currently approximately 17,000 children in foster care in New York City, from infants to teenagers. Most are eventually able to return to their birth families and just need temporary foster homes. Some children need permanent homes through adoption.

Being a foster parents means providing a caring, nurturing home to a child or sibling group. It also means working with the birth parents as part of a team to help bring the family back together. And it may mean providing a permanent home through adoption for a child who has been with you as a foster child.

For those children who can't return to their birth family, adoption provides a new home and family to call their own. Being an adoptive parent means making a lifetime commitment to a child.

To find out more, call the Parent Recruitment Hotline 212 676-WISH (toll-free out of NYC 877 676-WISH), and attend an orientation session. And keep in mind, it's not necessary to make a decision about what's right for you before starting the process.

Foster Care Process

How Do I adopt?