Posted:
AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Over four thousand children are in the foster care system waiting to be placed in a permanent home. Heart Galleries of Texas is a statewide effort to connect each of these children with their forever families.
Here locally, as of last fall, there are 294 children awaiting adoption. Heart Gallery of the Panhandle Plains is working to connect these children with families.
Heart Gallery of the Pahandle Plains currently has heart displays at the Rick Husband International Airport, United Supermarkets, and Amarillo Arts Institute. The galleries tell the stories of local children waiting to be adopted through the art of pictures.
“A picture speaks 1000 words. I could tell you all day long about one of these little kids on the photo. But, if you don’t see a picture, if you don’t have that connection with your eyes and with your heart,” said Heart Gallery Program Manager Amy Crowley. “It’s not the same, words just don’t tell the story as well as a picture does.”
In Texas, there were 870 youths aged out of the foster care system last year. Crowley explained that finding these children homes better serves the children, along with the community.
“Things like homelessness and incarceration increase greatly, so as a community as a whole, we are so much better when kids find family and when kids have a place to belong. So not only is it beneficial for the kids, it’s beneficial for the community,” Crowley added.
All of the children who are displayed in the Heart Gallery of the Panhandle Plains are local kids, but many are currently living in Dallas or Houston.
“We really want to get them back home, back to the area where they’ve grown up, where they know it and they love it, and help find them that family,” added Crowley.
The nonprofit not only works on finding forever families for the children but also provides post-adoption services. In Amarillo alone, the nonprofit has been able to provide 255 counseling sessions to pos adoptive families.
“Our funding is directed not only at Heart Gallery displays, but we feel like it’s very important after someone adopts, to wrap our arms around them completely,” Crowley detailed. “If we’re not there after the fact, to provide them post-adoption services like counseling and therapy and respite services, family camps, things like that, then we’re not doing them a service.”
Heart Galleries of Texas, along with Kendra Scott, are working together to help tell the stories of foster children waiting for their families. On May 1st, the community can shop at Kendra Scott in Westgate Mall or shop online, and 20% of the proceeds will go to Heart Gallery of the Panhandle Plains.
If shopping online, use code GIVEBACK-REGION1 so proceeds will be donated to Heart Gallery of the Panhandle Plains.
For people looking to help the mission of Heart Gallery of the Panhandle Plains, Crowley encourages community members to host a gallery or become a volunteer photographer.
More information on how to do so can be found on their website, along with children who are waiting to be adopted.