Adoption charity celebrates 15 years of changing children’s lives

Adoption Focus was established in June 2009, and since then has grown to be one of the largest VAAs in the country and has placed more than 700 children with 500 new families.

Many of these families joined Adoption Focus team members and volunteers for an anniversary celebration party last weekend featuring music, face painting, a buffet, a bouncy castle, garden games, a storyteller, arts and crafts, and dance activities.

Adoption Focus CEO, Anna Sharkey, said: "We’re very grateful to everyone who joined us for our celebration party and made it such a success. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with our adopters and their children and catch up on their continuing stories.

"For this event, we were joined by families who adopted in our earliest days as an agency, whose children are now young adults, as well as much more recent adopters enjoying their first few months of family life. It was a lovely reminder of how our staff, trustees, and volunteers work together with adopters to enable every child to have a family in which they can grow, thrive, feel loved, know who they are, where they come from and where they belong. Here’s to the next 15 years - working together to improve lives."

Other plans to mark the charity’s landmark year include a fundraising campaign to support their work with children who’ve had a challenging start in life, and the release of a special podcast episode in which Nathan looks back on his journey as a single adopter, 10 years after his sons were first placed with him. They are also actively recruiting potential adopters to provide safe, loving homes for vulnerable children in the months and years to come.

Adoption Focus is an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rated adoption agency operating across the whole of the central England region. For more information about their services, please call them on 0121 779 0891 or visit adoption-focus.org.uk.

By Nick Perry - Contributor