AMES, IOWA (September 10, 2026) — With 100,000 US children waiting for forever families, local non-profit calls on communities to support child-abuse prevention and education, foster care, and adoption.
Across the United States, thousands of children spend years in foster care, often placed in group settings due to a critical shortage of foster homes. Nationwide, approximately 100,000 children are waiting for permanent families, while roughly 15,000 young people age out of the system every year without a place to call home.
Iowans for Adoption is calling on communities in Iowa and across the country to step up and help solve this growing crisis.
“Not everyone can foster or adopt a child — but everyone can play a role in helping children find safe, permanent, loving families,” said Ruth Eley LMSW, child-welfare advocate and mother of 22 (including eighteen children adopted through Iowa's foster care system).
“The goal is simple: To help more children move from uncertainty to safety and permanency — from hope to home.”
Eley, a recipient of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s Angels in Adoption Award, will be a featured guest speaker at the upcoming From Hope to Home Gala in Ames, September 17, 6-8:30PM, at Reiman Gardens. (Tickets and information at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/from-hope-to-home-gala or https://www.iowansforadoption.org/events.) The Gala is sponsored and Iowa Farm Bureau and hosted by Iowans for Adoption/The National Center for Adoption.
With recent federal initiatives putting a renewed national spotlight on child welfare, local leaders emphasize that community-level action remains vital.
“We have kept the nation’s foster care crisis at the forefront for Iowans,” said Dr Diana Lang, Founder and Executive Director of Iowans for Adoption.
“Now, we are requesting others to advocate for our next generation.”
Iowans for Adoption mobilizes individuals, businesses, and organizations to:
- Educate communities on the Safe Haven Act and safe alternatives for struggling parents;
- Recruit and support prospective foster and adoptive families through system navigation;
- Assist families directly with adoption finalization expenses and resource connection; and
- Strengthen children and families working toward safe, stable, permanent relationships.
The National Center for Adoption (d/b/a Iowans for Adoption) is a volunteer-led non-profit dedicated to advocating for children in foster care, supporting adoptive families, and promoting awareness and resources for permanent family placement.
