Local students ask Winter Park to help publicize foster/adoption navigation tool

Assad Sadikoff and Arif Gupta, rising seniors at Trinity Preparatory School and co-founders of HavenLink, asked the commission to use city channels and facilities to help connect prospective adoptive families with licensed agencies. They said Florida's 2024 change to Section 409.167 eliminated public photo listings of children awaiting adoption, reducing the most visible path to potential families, and left a gap that local outreach could help fill.

The students asked for three modest actions: (1) a proclamation recognizing National Adoption Month in November, (2) a one-paragraph newsletter item and social-media post linking residents to adoption/licensing resources, and (3) an evening space (library or community center) for an informational session. City staff agreed to connect them with the communications director and the library to facilitate next steps.

"On any given day in Florida, roughly 10,000 children are in foster care," one student told the commission, asking Winter Park to consider community outreach as a way to bridge the information gap created by the statutory change.