Right now, more than 30,000 children are waiting to be adopted from foster care in Canada. To achieve the vision that every child will have a permanent home and a loving family, it is critical to understand Canadians’ awareness and perceptions of adoption and foster care.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption-Canada commissioned The Harris Poll to conduct the 2022 Canada Adoption and Foster Care Attitudes Survey. The Foundation first commissioned the survey in 2012 and has continued to survey Canadians every five years to understand how these perceptions change over time.
The Harris Poll surveyed more than 1,000 Canadian adults, discovering a number of positive changes. The 2022 survey reveals that 68% of Canadians believe all waiting children are adoptable, a 14% increase from 2017. While a growing number of Canadians believe more should be done to help youth in foster care, unfortunately, more than half (51%) mistakenly believe that children are placed in care because they are juvenile delinquents.
Increased interest in and support for adoption is exactly what the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption-Canada has been working toward. Building public support for foster care adoption is critically important. The idea that these children have done something wrong, causing them to be placed in foster care, continues to permeate society. It is a misconception that we must continue to fight.
Read the 2022 press release.
