Important program update
The Family Resource and Training Center wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to every one of you who has had such a caring heart for the youth we have served through this program for the past 10 years.
Please read the information below outlining how the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare plans to continue its diligent efforts to find permanency for all children in foster care in Idaho.
Please complete inquiries for any youth you are interested in as soon as possible so that we may process your inquiry before our website closes.
July 28, 2026
To Our Community Partners,
The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare has been proud to partner with Eastern Washington University (EWU) and other community partners to recruit adoptive families for Idaho’s children in foster care. Since Idaho’s Wednesday’s Child began over 25 years ago, the landscape of adoption from foster care has changed yet there continues to be a need for child-specific recruitment for youth most in-need of a permanent home. Over the years the department has reorganized how permanency cases are managed to address this need and to achieve timely permanency for children who cannot return home. These changes include permanency workers “teaming” earlier with family services workers and the addition of a Family Find team to help identify previously unknown relatives and connections for our youth in care. Meanwhile, advances in technology and social media have resulted in increased risks related to public profiles causing Idaho and other states to consider the long-term impact to the youth featured.
The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare is in a position to innovate practices for child-specific recruitment while demonstrating fiscal responsibility. With this in mind, the contract for Wednesday’s Child, Waiting Families and intensive recruitment services is ending effective 09/30/2026. These services will be provided through Youth Safety & Permanency team members beginning October 1, 2026. During this transition, the current website for Idaho Wednesday’s Child will be unavailable while an updated website is created for both our waiting children and waiting families. Idaho will continue to use the AdoptUSKids website during the transition to ensure ongoing efforts to achieve permanency for waiting children.
Thank you for your continued support and advocacy on behalf of Idaho’s children.
Thank you,
Jean M. Fisher
Idaho Wednesday’s Child is a specialized recruitment program committed to decreasing the number of young people who ‘age out’ of foster care.
The Family Resource and Training Center (FRTC) administers Idaho Wednesday's Child for the Department of Health and Welfare. Idaho Wednesday's Child is a child specific adoption recruitment program for children with special needs that utilizes the media, adoption websites, newspapers, magazines and social media to meet the specilic recruitment needs of each child.
Idaho Wednesdays Child arranges photo sessions, coordinates youth's filming days, and sends photos and profiles to national exchanges and to print media outlets as specified by each child’s individual recruitment plan. ldaho Wednesday’s Child also gathers inquiries and sends the contact information to the permanency team of each child. Families that do not have home studies are given information on how to obtain those studies and are mentored through the process.
The ldaho Wednesday’s Child recruitment coordinators attend community events where they are able to talk to folks about adoption through the foster care system, as well as the joys and challenges of adopting older children. We utilize the Heart Gallery at many of these events and local businesses. The Heart Gallery consists of enlarged photos of the children displayed so that the community can get a sense of the need for committed families right here in Idaho.
For a decade, FRTC has been in the community talking to folks all over Idaho about the need for foster families through our recruitment and mentoring program, Fostering Idaho. Fostering Idaho has successfully recruited and mentored many families. However, sometimes families feel that adoption is a better fit for them and want to pursue that avenue. Utilizing the Idaho Wednesday's Child program casts a wide net across the state of ldaho because of how closely we work with Fostering Idaho.
Our staff is equipped with years of experience in the field of Child Welfare and are sensitive to the needs of children from a trauma-informed perspective, while also relating to the needs of the families they work with.
Once a child's profile is on the website and other media outlets, families have the opportunity to inquire about the child. They can do so on the Waiting Child Profile page or through any of the national exchanges on which the profile is featured. This inquiry information is collected in our database. The Wednesday's Child Recruitment Coordinator will contact the family via email and send them information regarding getting a home study if one is needed. The Family’s contact information is then sent to the child’s permanency team. We work closely with social workers regarding the family’s home study progress. Our Coordinators desire to work closely with permanency teams.
