During the 2024 Wendy’s Wonderful Kids® Summit, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption recognized Amy, a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter with Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, as a Recruiter of the Year. Amy’s passion for achieving permanency for children in waiting in foster care is evident in how she diligently approaches implementation of the child-focused recruitment model. She turns over every stone and revisits previous steps when she encounters a dead end.
Through our Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program, the Foundation supports the hiring of adoption recruiters, like Amy, who are dedicated to finding permanent families for the longest-waiting children in foster care. That includes teenagers, children with special needs and siblings. These professionals use an evidence-based, child-focused recruitment model to find the right family for every child in their care. A rigorous, five-year evaluation revealed that children referred to Wendy’s Wonderful Kids are up to 3x more likely to be adopted.
“The child-focused recruitment model … I truly enjoy having a model to work by knowing these are the steps I need to do,” said Amy. “It does work.“
Amy’s bright light shines throughout her work by reframing situations to see the positive and offering support to anyone who needs it. From grabbing dinner, to attending their games, to sitting by their side, Amy shows up in meaningful ways for the youth she serves to show how much she cares.
“Watching her go the extra mile is incredible to see,” shared Michaela, a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids supervisor. “She does it with every single child that she works with, every single family she works with. She’s just always meeting them where they’re at and helping them to succeed.”
Congratulations, Amy, and thank you for your continued passion and commitment to finding permanent families for children lingering in foster care.
You can join the Foundation in recognizing the life-changing work of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids adoption professionals, like Amy, by sending them a thank you note.
