DEPELCHIN HAS LONG LEGACY AS LEADER IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOSTER CARE AND ADOPTION

As Houston’s oldest family services agency, the 127-year-old DePelchin Children’s Center is deeply rooted in the city’s history and culture, connecting generation-to-generation and family-to-family through its foster care and adoption services. In honor of Black History Month, we revisit the efforts made by DePelchin Children’s Center, an organization that fought to break barriers, making African-American children a focus and a priority.
 Now, for nearly 90 years, DePelchin has been a recognized leader in adoption and foster care concentrating on the needs and care of African-American children.
 In the 1930’s, when Houston was a city divided by race, DePelchin stood above the stigma and opinion playing a crucial role in finding solutions to the gaps in resources to help African-American children. DePelchin responded by opening the Negro Child Center—the first institution of its kind in the South.  The Center, located in Houston’s Fifth Ward, provided residential and foster care services for children in need, and welcomed its first children in 1939.
 In 1960, these efforts expanded to include a new DePelchin unit that specifically looked for adoptive homes for black and Hispanic children as well as youngsters with disabilities and special needs.
 Today, there are nearly 30,000 children are in foster care in Texas, and another 7,236 waiting for adoptive families. Most recent data indicates Child Protective Services has legally removed a staggering 4,400 African-American children during the last fiscal year. These children account for more than 25% of all children removed, but account for only 12% of all children in our state. Furthermore, African-American children account for more than 35% of children awaiting adoption, and typically wait two months longer to achieve adoption as compared to white children.
 DePelchin Children’s Center continues to envision a world in which every child is safe and healthy. As a leader and advocate for children in foster care and adoption care, the agency works collaboratively with agencies and organizations to identify families and resources for African-American children and all children in Greater Houston and statewide through its affiliate offices in Austin, San Antonio and Lubbock.
 DePelchin’s families are single or married, same sex or traditional, working or retired. They are renters or homeowners, have children of their own or no parenting experience. What they all share is a genuine desire to care for children and the ability to provide a safe and loving home. To foster and adopt a child, prospective parents should be at least 21 years of age; in good physical health; pass a criminal background check and have the financial ability to provide for a child.
We encourage you to learn more about foster care and adoption at DePelchin Children’s Center on the website, https://www.depelchin.org/becoming-a-foster-parent/  and email us at fosteroradopt@depelchin.org.