The Heart Galleries of Texas will be joining the Center for Societal Impact beginning next month through a partnership with the Governor’s Commission for Women and the Texas Center for Child and Family Studies. The Texas Heart Gallery operates as a foster care awareness program that promotes adoptive parent recruitment. Through the use of professional portraits displayed in the community, they aim to connect families interested in adoption with children in the foster care system and the supports needed to thrive. Thanks to the Heart Gallery program, the central Texas region shows approximately 16% higher overall adoption rates as compared with the rest of the state year after year. Comparatively speaking, this model is working better than anywhere else in the state.
Through a partnership with the CSI the Texas Heart Galleries hope to take their operations statewide, and begin programs for adoption in every region of Texas. Each day, more than 6,000 children in the Texas foster care system are waiting for a forever home. Through a statewide expansion, they will generate better outcomes for the hardest cases, finding homes for teens, sibling groups, and medically fragile children.
Leading the Heart Gallery is Director Kori Gough, who’s work has helped children across the state be placed with their forever homes. Kori is a UT alum, and has been in the foster care space for over a decade. She is a welcome addition to the CSI team, and will spearhead statewide development for additional Heart Gallery programs.
We hope to continue our partnership with the Texas Heart Gallery into the future, and help support their efforts to help find foster youth their forever homes.
