Adoption Assistance Programs

Employees whose personal lives are in order make for a more peaceful and productive workplace. Many progressive employers, therefore, offer employee benefits to help their workers at points of need. On-site day-care and employee assistance plans are typical employee benefits. Employee Assistance Plans typically provide assistance for short-term mental health, legal, or chaplaincy needs. Less common, perhaps, is Adoption Assistance.

Adoption Assistance Plans typically include financial reimbursement up to a designated amount, typically in the vicinity of $5000 for the adoption of one child, leaves of absence (either paid or unpaid), and resource and referral.

Numerous large corporations offer some type of adoption assistance. One of the better known is the Adoption Assistance Program offered by Wendy’s International, Inc. Wendy’s founder, Dave Thomas, who was himself an adoptee, has created the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The Adoption Assistance Plan offered by Wendy’s International provides both expense reimbursement and paid leave of absence when the parents take custody of their newly-adopted child. Liberal arts colleges and hospitals seem to be the primary sponsors of Adoption Assistance among Christian ministries.

Whether any Christian denominations, as such, offer adoption benefits is an open question. There are hundreds of denominations, and a survey of all would be difficult. However, neither I nor the National Adoption Center was able to stumble across any in the brief amount of time we had to research this issue. Given the numerous publicly-held corporations and private non-profit organizations offering adoption assistance, such plans would seem to be a worthwhile cause for Christians to pursue in the context of their faith communities.