24/7 CRISIS SUPPORT:
Pregnancy ONLY
Hotline: 1-888-731-6601
PWNL After Hours Crisis Hotline: 1-888-955-3339
24/7 CRISIS SUPPORT:
Pregnancy ONLY
Hotline: 1-888-731-6601
PWNL After Hours Crisis Hotline: 1-888-955-3339
Project Wait No Longer (PWNL), Barker’s foster care adoption program, helps find permanent families for youth, sibling groups, and children with specialized needs who are legally available for adoption. Most youth waiting in foster care are 10–17 years old, but some younger children are part of larger sibling groups (three or more) who desperately wish to stay together. Our program partners with public child welfare agencies across the country to find loving, safe, and permanent families like yours. PWNL has placed over 200 wonderful children with adoptive families in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
Our foster care program, PWNL, is seeking couples and individuals who have room in their homes and hearts to adopt a waiting child or sibling group. Our comprehensive program will provide you with the following services:
PWNL is seeking families and individuals who feel prepared to meet the needs of and become permanent families for the children waiting in the foster care system. Here is a video about the most common characteristics seen in PWNL adoptive parents.
The following are the general eligibility criteria for PWNL:
The children we place have all experienced significant trauma. Many have been removed from their biological families because of abuse and neglect and urgently need a loving and stable family that is prepared to help them heal from the impact of that trauma. Despite their history, children in the foster care system are very resilient and can thrive with the love and support of a safe, loving, and committed family.
The mission of PWNL is to reduce the wait times of children languishing in the foster care system without a family. We do so by identifying, recruiting, training, and supporting families who step forward for these youth. Hear the resilient stories of youth who were left to navigate life after foster care on their own: ‘Aged Out: Life After Foster Care,’
Parent education and training are an essential and valuable part of the adoption process. We are committed to providing critical services before, during, and after your adoption process.
The first step in learning more about adoption and our programs is attending a monthly free information meeting. You will have the opportunity to meet with staff members, ask questions, and hear from a family that has adopted through Barker. You can find an upcoming meeting by visiting the Barker Events Calendar.
The National Training and Development Curriculum, NTDC is a nationally recognized training model used to educate, support, and prepare families who will be adopting a child through the US foster care system, international or private domestic process. Families will enhance core competencies and gain skills to effectively parent children from a variety of different backgrounds, who have experienced trauma, separation and loss. Through shared learning with others and with the facilitation of an experienced professional and parent team, we believe that families can provide the healing environment that children need.
Find the next session here
Project Wait No Longer (PWNL) has always focused on older youth in foster care. PWNL+ is an expansion of that mission. By partnering with government agencies across the United States, we identify youth whose cases require highly targeted, specialized recruitment efforts, to focus efforts on a move to open, loving, supportive, and permanent families.
Adopting an older child may not be a good fit for everyone; however, there are ways that everyone can help the 100,000+ children who are waiting in the foster care system.
If you are interested in helping PWNL share information about children waiting in the foster care system, don’t hesitate to contact our Outreach and Program Support Specialist at info@barkeradoptionfoundation.org or 301-664-9664.