SEATTLE, WA. – The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) announced that it will honor Casey Family Programs Board of Trustee member, Dr. Sharon McDaniel-Lowe, with the Angels in Adoption award, which provides an opportunity to all members of the U.S. Congress to acknowledge the good work of their constituents and partners who have enriched the lives of foster children and orphans. Dr. McDaniel-Lowe will be honored at the Angels in Adoption gala September 20, 2006 in Washington, D.C.
Dr. McDaniel-Lowe, who joined Casey Family Programs Board of Trustees in January 2005, is the founder, president, and CEO of A Second Chance Inc., a Pennsylvania-based non-profit agency that provides safe, secure, and nurturing environments for children who are being cared for by their relatives or close family friends, also called “kinship care.”
“The Angels in Adoption program is one I have long respected and admired,” said Dr. McDaniel-Lowe. “ As an alumna of foster care, a kin caregiver, and an advocate working to positively affect the lives of the hundreds of thousands of our youth in foster care in this nation, I feel blessed to be honored with this award.”
The Angels in Adoption program, CCAI’s signature public awareness program, was established in 1999 to honor outstanding individuals. Since then, the program has developed into a year-long public awareness campaign culminating in an awards gala and celebration in Washington, D.C. Recipients are chosen from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The CCAI is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the tens of thousands of orphans and foster children in the United States and the millions of orphans around the world in need of permanent, safe, and loving homes through adoption. CCAI’s goal is to eliminate the barriers that hinder these children from realizing their basic right of a family. CCAI was created in 2001 by the active co-chairs of the bicameral, bipartisan Congressional Coalition of Adoption to more effective raise Congressional and public awareness about the issue of adoption.