CBC of Brevard named one of America’s best adoption-friendly workplaces
MELBOURNE, FL – Community Based Care of Brevard, Brevard County’s lead child welfare agency announced it ranked sixth nationally, in the top 100 small employee group businesses (1-100 employees) on the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America list, recently released by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
“We continue to see increases in the number of companies establishing and enhancing adoption benefit policies. Even with today’s tough economy, we found that companies are dedicated more than ever to providing competitive benefits packages to help their employees when they adopt,” said Rita Soronen, executive director of the Foundation. “It is one benefit that employers can add without negatively impacting the bottom line.”
Rankings for the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace list are determined by an analysis of a company’s adoption benefits – financial reimbursement and paid leave – available to employees who adopt. The Foundation compiled the results from survey data collected from 753 U.S. employers. Employee Benefit News, a SourceMedia publication that is the leading source of information for benefits decision makers, helped extend the survey’s scope even further by inviting readers to participate. Wendy’s International, Inc. in Dublin, Ohio, earned the top spot with a maximum of $24,300 in financial assistance and to up to six weeks paid leave per employee.
“We are honored to have been chosen as a Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace by the Dave Thomas Foundation,” said CBC of Brevard CEO, Dr. Patricia Nellius-Guthrie. “As the lead agency for child welfare services, we are committed to providing our employees with the resources that will assist them in becoming adoptive parents to a child who needs the love and safety of a ‘forever’ home, just as we do for the many adoptive parents we serve throughout Brevard.”
Today, more than 150,000 foster care children are available for adoption in North America – 129,000 of them in the United States. Most will spend nearly four years in the system before they are adopted. The release of the third annual Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace List helps the Foundation increase foster care adoption awareness while celebrating those businesses that support adoptive families.
In addition to ranking the top 100, the Foundation also recognized the top ten by size, the leaders of each industry, and companies who support the cause of adoption and adoptive families in other ways. To view the complete Adoption-Friendly Workplace list, please visit www.adoptionfriendlyworkplace.org.
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About Community Based Care of Brevard
Community Based Care of Brevard is Brevard County’s lead child welfare agency. Its mission is to protect children, strengthen families and change lives through the prevention of child abuse and the operation and management of a comprehensive, integrated, community-based system of care for abused, abandoned and neglected children, and their families.
About the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a non-profit public charity dedicated to dramatically increasing the number of adoptions of foster care children in North America. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s and an adopted child, created the Foundation in 1992 in support of the vision that every child will have a permanent home and a loving family. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption focuses on increasing foster care adoption awareness while supporting model adoption service programs and is committed to ensuring that adoption from the foster care system in streamlined, affordable and accessible to any family wanting to adopt. To learn more about the Foundation’s work, go to www.DaveThomasFoundationforAdoption.org.
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Contact
Geo A. Ropert, APR
Communications Consultant
Community Based Care of Brevard, Inc.
760 North Dr., Ste. E
Melbourne, FL 32934
Phone: 321-752-4650 ext. 2084
Cell: 321-205-3155 (preferred)
Email: Geo.Ropert@cbcbrevard.org
