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Heart Gallery representative asks county for venue help to connect local children with adoptive families
Summary
A Heart Gallery representative asked county officials for help finding local venues to display dignified photos of children in foster care who are eligible for adoption and described the group's Region 7 outreach and recent legislative funding.
A Heart Gallery representative told county officials that the nonprofit places dignified photographs of children who are in the care of CPS and legally free for adoption in public spaces across Region 7 to raise awareness and recruit adoptive families. The speaker said the program seeks local venues and volunteers in communities that have not yet hosted exhibits.
The outreach matters because several children in the county are eligible for adoption but live outside the nonprofit’s usual I-35 corridor outreach, the representative said.
"The Heart Gallery is essentially just a community engagement initiative to raise awareness about children who are in the care of CPS, who are legally free and wanting to be adopted," the Heart Gallery representative said. She described exhibit locations the program has used — "coffee shops, libraries, court houses, tax assessment offices, local businesses, IKEA" — and a connected TV segment called "Forever Families" that can direct interested people to licensing and foster-care resources.
The representative said the Heart Gallery serves all of Region 7 (30 counties) and currently has about 100 children in its gallery. She told officials the group received legislative funding in the 88th and 89th legislative sessions and is trying to expand into communities it has not yet served. In this county she said the group had not previously exhibited and noted "you guys have 3 kids in the care of CPS whose parental rights have been terminated and who are eligible for adoption." She asked officials for suggestions about gathering places and local boards or partners to help host exhibits and connect families to resources.
County participants pointed to local volunteer boards and community resource groups as likely partners and suggested posting information on public notice boards to recruit venues. The Heart Gallery representative said she would follow up with businesses and boards the county suggested.
No formal county action was recorded in the transcript on the request; the exchange was recorded during a public-comment or information segment, and the Heart Gallery representative indicated she would do follow-up work to identify venues and contacts.
The discussion included references to local partnering groups (identified in the meeting as "CDX" and local boards) and to serving kinship, foster and grandparent caregivers in addition to recruiting new licensed foster/adoptive families. The representative emphasized the program’s role as a resource hub for people who inquire but are not licensed to foster or adopt.
