For most of us, a permanent home, the love and support of a family and the experience of childhood innocence is something we take for granted. For many children, the hopeful search for a family and all that it offers may take years, if it happens at all.
We are an all-volunteer community nonprofit and our talented photographers volunteer their time to capture stunning portraits of the children. These portraits show their spirit and personality, and as these traveling portraits are exhibited throughout the community in different venues, it raises awareness of the critical need for more foster parents.
Founded in 2005, the Heart Gallery of Sacramento is a partnership of photographers, artists, businesses and community volunteers from public and private agencies serving children and youth in foster care throughout the Sacramento Region. All of the Heart Galleries are dedicated to assisting children living in foster care to realize their dream of finding permanent, loving families to call their own.
Rosemary Papa founded the Sacramento Heart Gallery after reading an article in the Parade Magazine about the original Santa Fe, New Mexico Heart Gallery and its success placing children with loving families. Rosemary knew the power of the picture because she and her husband had adopted two little girls years ago from a small 2”x 3” black and white photo. Following its first exhibit, the Sacramento Heart Gallery successfully placed 55% of the children with adoptive families.
Click here to view the "Adoption Placement Statistics To Date".
Goals
History
In 2001, Diane Granito, a State adoptions recruiter in Santa Fe, New Mexico, had a unique idea to assist children in search of adoptive families. Given Santa Fe’s reputation as a center for the arts and its proximity to many artists and galleries, Diane believed that art could be used to the adoption center’s advantage. By collaborating with professional photographers to take photographs of children awaiting adoption and Gerald Peters, head of the largest gallery in Santa Fe, Diane founded the first Heart Gallery exhibition. Remarkably, the first exhibition resulted in the placement of eight children, including the adoption of one of the children by one of the photographers.
Today, Heart Galleries have opened in more than 80 communities across the country. In the words of one photographer (who adopted a child), “The job of a photo reporter is to record history. For the first time, we have the ability to change history. We can give voice to a living part of our society, which otherwise would not be heard. We need to find families for these children who have been waiting for years. Click here to view the Heart Gallery of America website.
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