Heart Gallery About Looking Ahead to Family

I have another passion to add to my list of priorities: finding temporary homes for our Heart Gallery.

The Heart Gallery is a traveling exhibit of pictures portraying some of the 200 children we have available for adoption. Set up like an art exhibit, the gallery of photos showcases children through positive photos, with the hope of attracting an adoptive parent.

This collection features some of our children who have waited the longest.

Each portrait has a story. One may be the daughter of a father gripped by heroin addiction. Another may be the son of a mother who can’t overcome her mental illness. Another may have been battered and bruised by someone incapable of loving and protecting. Still yet another may have been his brother and sister’s protector, taking the brunt of the abuse so they could be spared.

But these photos are not about looking back. They’re about looking forward to what could be. Each of these children have hopes and dreams of finding a forever family. The Heart Gallery gives them another chance.

We do everything we can to promote our kids who wait for families. For the Heart Gallery, we worked with local photographers who took photographs especially for this exhibit. We plan to move the exhibit throughout Greater Cincinnati on a monthly basis. We already have commitments from several organizations that have high-traffic areas.

With up to 14 stands and 50 portraits, it can expand or shrink to fits into spaces large and small. The pop up banners that hold it are 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide. They are lightweight and not very thick. Those who host the gallery can simply ask for as many stands as they think will fit. To learn more about the Heart Gallery, visit facebook.com/hamiltoncountyheartgallery or hckids.org/heartgallery.

We hope these photographs bring awareness to foster care and adoption and attract the attention of families who have room for just one more.

Could you be #theone to make a difference in the life of a child? Please call us at 946-1728 or email us at HC-HeartGallery@jfs.hamilton-co.org if you are willing to host The Heart Gallery of Hamilton County.

 

by Jane Prendergast

Filed Under: From the Director, News

Tagged: adoption, child abuse, foster care, hamilton county department of job and family services, hamilton county job and family services, heart gallery, moira weir, neglect