By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – A special exhibit that portrays the faces of foster children from Western New York will be on display beginning Thursday. The Heart Gallery photo exhibit is titled "Framing Faces, Finding Families.
The exhibit has been created in an effort to raise public awareness about foster care and adoption. It will allow prospective parents a chance to view some of the children waiting for a new home.
Karen Carroll is the chairperson for the Western New York Heart Gallery. She says it is actually part of a national movement. The project first began in 2001 in New Mexico by a photographer who took note of children waiting for adoptive homes. A similar photo exhibit has been created for Buffalo through the Coalition of Adoption and Foster Care Agencies. Carroll says Buffalo's exhibit will be displayed at the Burchfield Penney Art Center featuring 52local children.
"They are children who are in care here in one of the eight counties of Western New York. Many are from Erie County," Carroll said. "They are all children under the care of the Coalition of Adoption and Foster Care Agencies, (CAFFA)."
The photos are designed to display the true faces of children awaiting adoption. Carroll also works in the Erie County Family Court with the foster children. She says these photos capture the true essence of "children being children."
"I think the photographers are able to pull a spirit out of these children that we could never do, because of the intimate nature of our knowledge of them."
Foster care provides a temporary state of care for a child who needs to be placed outside their parents home for safety reasons. If the biological parents are denied the return of their child or children, then they are put up for adoption. Carroll says it is a challenging process to make sure the children are matched with the right family.
Forty-eight percent of the local children up for adoption are ages 10 and older and 58 percent are male. In Western New York, 1,700 children are in foster care, with 600 waiting for adoption.