AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Showing the faces and sharing the stories of one of the 6,000 children in the Texas foster care system waiting to be adopted and to find a permanent place they can call home.
“It caught the attention of the governor’s wife, Mrs. Abbott, that there was a certain area of Texas that had an adoption rate that was about 20-25% higher than the rest of the state. What she discovered was that there was a Heart Gallery there,” added Amy Crowley, Amarillo area director for the Heart Gallery of the Panhandle Plains.
Heart of the High Plains: Family Support Services
She detailed: “Heart Gallery had been thriving for years, and because pictures of kids who are in foster care, who are waiting to be adopted, were displayed at all sorts of places- public places, businesses, organizations, churches, any place that would donate space- kids’ faces were being seen.”
When the Heart Gallery began back in 2024, the Panhandle saw 1 percent of kids being adopted; according to Crowley, they now see an adoption rate of 35%…