D. C. Mayor Helps Launch Foster Care Initiative 'Work Of Heart' Hopes To Boost Participation

D. C. Mayor Helps Launch Foster Care Initiative 'Work Of Heart' Hopes
To Boost Participation

POSTED: 5:36 pm EST March 30, 2005 UPDATED: 6:15 pm EST March 30, 2005

WASHINGTON -- He has never made a secret of the fact that he was
adopted as a child. But D. C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams says people
often think he's from a privileged family. He credits his adoptive
mother with raising him -- and seven siblings -- in the "nobility of
hard work."

Williams helped launch the Work of Heart Regional Recruitment
Initiative on Wednesday, with a goal of increasing the number of
foster parents in the Washington area by 20 percent. Supported by a
federal grant and funding from the Freddie Mac Foundation, the program
pays current foster parents an additional $500 a month to be part-time
recruiters.

"We can tell you it takes every bit of everything you have in you, and
it's still worth it," said Marilyn Egerton, who fostered more than 25
district children over more than 13 years and adopted four of them.

The goal is to train and license at least 125 new foster parents to
accept children with special needs and groups of siblings. The
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and Freddie Mac will
unveil a $150,000 radio ad campaign in mid-April. Work of Heart's
Volunteer Respite Program will also certify people to care for foster
children one weekend a month, offering foster parents much-needed
breaks.

"I've been in a situation where I've needed that break and have been
unable to get it," Egerton said, adding that many foster children act
out after being ripped away from biological parents. Along with
Williams, U. S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona shared his personal
story of adoption.

"These were truly gifts -- I didn't recognize how much I would get in
return," Carmona said of his three adopted children. "I'd like to have
my own orphanage," he added.
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