NCFA Media : Archived News

National Council For Adoption Public Awareness Campaign Wins National Recognition

“Thanks for Considering Adoption” Campaign Recognized with Three Silver Angels

ALEXANDRIA , VIRGINIA , March 25, 2004 – The Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program of The National Council For Adoption (NCFA), has been honored with three Silver Angel awards from Hollywood-based Excellence in Media. The awards were presented to the Program for its “Thanks for Considering Adoption” public service campaign that has been used by media outlets throughout the country. The annual awards honor works of outstanding moral, ethical and/or social impact. The recipients of the Silver Angels are those in various forms of media that have successfully contributed to the advancement of quality in life without the unnecessary use of violence, profanity, or sexual content.

The “Thanks for Considering Adoption” campaign received recognition in three categories: National Television, Radio, and a special award for the informational Media Kit that accompanied the broadcast materials.

“We created this campaign to say, ‘Thanks' to all those who consider adoption and to all those involved in the Program,” says Paul Devantier, the National Director of the Adoption Awareness effort. Devantier, who served as Executive Producer for the campaign, is an award-winning radio and television producer/director who is an adoptive father, and who has been a foster father for more than 80 children. “We are truly honored by the Silver Angel awards. The recognition belongs to the wonderful children who appear in the campaign, all of whom were adopted, and to people everywhere who have been touched in positive ways by adoption.”

The Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program will release additional campaign materials, featuring even more children, in April.

Tom Atwood, President and CEO of NCFA, says, “These PSAs promote public understanding and appreciation of adoption. The healthy, smiling children in these ads are heartwarming proof that adoption is truly a loving option – both for women and teens with unplanned pregnancies who are not ready to

parent, and for children adopted as infants who grow up secure and loved in their adopted forever families.”

About the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program

As part of the “Adoption Awareness Act” legislation passed in 2000, the United States Congress encouraged the consideration of infant adoption as a positive option for women and teens facing unplanned pregnancies. The act, co-sponsored by Congressmen Tom Bliley and Jim DeMint, was intended to ensure that counselors in health clinics and other settings provide women complete and

accurate information on adoption. The training program is funded through a grant to the National Council For Adoption from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The Infant Adoption Awareness Act passed the House as part of H.R. 4365 by a vote of 419-2 and passed the Senate by unanimous consent.

About NCFA

Since 1980, NCFA has been a leading voice among national adoption and child welfare organizations. NCFA is a research, education, and advocacy nonprofit that provides adoption information, promotes ethical adoption practices, informs public policy and opinion about adoption issues, and serves as a resource to women with unplanned pregnancies, to adoptive families, to those seeking to adopt, and to adoption professionals.

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