Achievements

We are honoured to be recognized for the following achievements in our work towards finding a family for every child and supporting adoptive families.

2016 Finalist for BC Premier's Award for Innovation

October 18, 2016 -- The Adoptive Families Association of BC (AFABC) is pleased to announce that AgedOut.com was shortlisted for a Premier’s Award in the field of Innovation. The Premier’s Award serves to recognize BC public service employees and teams whose contributions have made a positive difference in the province.

AgedOut.com is an interactive website that provides young people with valuable skills as they transition out of care and into adulthood. Launched in June 2015, AgedOut.com was developed by AFABC in partnership with the Ministry of Children and Family Development and Agentic Digital Media with input from former youth in care all over British Columbia.

To date over 900 users have signed up for the site, with over 1/3 of those being youth in or from government care.

The Premier’s Innovation and Excellence Awards were presented Tuesday, October 18 in Victoria.

2013 Wendy's Wonderful Kids Supervisor of the Year

May 15, 2013, Ohio - AFABC Executive Director Karen Madeiros received a Wendy's Wonderful Kids Supervisor of the Year award, a recognition given to three recipients in North America at the Wendy's Wonderful Kids (WWK) annual Summit meeting. WWK recruiters Kirsty Stormer and Anne Melcombe nominated Madeiros for the award, saying "Karen offers support and encouragement, affirming the work we are doing, while giving appropriate guidance and direction. She empowers and motivates us by her passion and her strong belief in the WWK motto 'unadoptable is unacceptable.' If a child has been waiting too long, has a setback, or is resistant to planning, she becomes more determined. She helps us see these challenges opportunities to really focus on finding a family for the youth when he needs one most."

Wendy's Wonderful Kids is a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. AFABC is the BC site for Wendy’s Wonderful Kids and has two recruiters who focuse on finding potential families within a child's immediate network. This program, in partnership with the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s Vancouver Coastal and Fraser regions, is designed to move children more quickly out of foster care and into adoptive families. 

2009 BC Representative for Children and Youth Advocacy Award of Excellence

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, BC’s Representative for Children and Youth, presented AFABC with the Advocacy Award of Excellence in November 2009.

At the award ceremony, Ms Turpel-Lafond explained why we were honoured:

"The work and initiatives of the people we recognize with these awards is truly inspiring. These are outstanding individuals and organizations who believe in possibility. They develop programs and pull together resources to help shape better futures and better lives for young people. They are innovative, they are spirited and it is a great honour to recognize and celebrate their achievements.

"AFABC was the first in BC to believe that teens in foster care deserve a permanent family and that there are families in our communities who, given the chance, would adopt them. When we first started this conversation very few teens were available for adoption, now it’s no longer acceptable to consider kids over 12 as “unadoptable.”

"AFABC was given the award for our work promoting teen adoption and for developing our Speak-Out Youth group, a group of youth-in-care and ex youth-in-care who are dedicated to raising awareness amongst their peers that adoption is an option. The group have produced some superb promotional materials that have been circulated in places where youth congregate. As well, the group worked on a DVD which tells the story of local youth who have found permanency through adoption. It also features moving testimony from youth who were not so fortunate. The DVD is an excellent resource to show youth-in-care and all the people that work with them. I’d like to thank and congratulate the AFABC staff, Sophia Barton Bucknor and Lacy Morin-Desjarlais, and the youth who have worked so hard on the teen program. We look forward to many more teen adoptions because of their work."