Foster/adoptive care agency opens doors

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A new agency providing adoption and other services to local families has opened in Van Wert.

Todd Hanes, president and CEO of Adriel Inc., cut the ribbon to officially open a Van Wert office in a building formerly housing the dental practice of the late Dr. Robert Laing at 521 S. Shannon St. (corner of Shannon and Leeson Avenue).

The agency, established in 1896 as the Mennonite Children’s Home in Orrville, currently has offices in Archbold, Dublin, and Toledo, in addition to the new Van Wert office and its West Liberty headquarters, and has deep connections to the Mennonite community.

“Adriel has been in the business of helping families and children for a long time,” Hanes said on Thursday.

Adriel, which is named for a Hebrew word meaning “flock of God”, provides a number of services to its communities, including independent living, family coaching, adoption, respite care, foster care, enhanced and supervised visitation, foster parent training, and clinical services.

“We do our work in the spirit of Christian love,” Hanes said, noting that, with an estimated 15,000 children in Ohio and more than 300,000 nationwide currently not living with their biological families, those services are very much needed.

“This is an epidemic, but I call it a mission field,” said Hanes, who is himself a foster and adoptive parent, adding that Adriel’s mission is “finding loving homes for children that find themselves, through no fault of their own, in harm’s way.”

The agency works through county Children’s Service agencies and courts to provide its services to children in the system.

Hanes said that, while The Marsh Foundation and other agencies also provide foster and adoptive services, there are way more children that need homes than there are foster parents and agencies to serve them.

“We have work to be done until every child is in a loving and safe home,” Hanes said. “So this isn’t a competition. If every agency is working at full capacity, there’s still going to be kids that need our help.”

Hanes said Adriel was already serving some children in the Van Wert area through its office in Archbold, so establishing an office in the community made sense to his agency.

The local Adriel office will employ one foster worker to start, with the ability to expand to three workers in the near future. The office includes two visit rooms where children and prospective foster parents can interact under observation from Adriel contracted staff, as well as three counseling offices, and three foster care offices.

Hanes also noted that there is a huge need for foster parents and adoptive parents, and urged those with interest in providing care for children, even if it is just for weekend respite, to get in contact with the Van Wert office at 419.513.2600.