A nation-wide movement to help children waiting for adoption has taken root in the Charlotte area.

The Heart Gallery, a volunteer project where professional photographers help children waiting for adoption find families is now working in Charlotte.

12-year-old Dustin is a child in foster care, taken from his parents because of abuse and neglect.

Dustin knows what he wants: “People who had horses, and had a dog,” Dustin said.

But what Dustin really needs is a family.

“I've just been looking for a family, and there's some of them not been good for me,” Dustin said.

It's been four long years of waiting, according to his social worker, Kristin Stout.

“Having to move into different homes over the years has been tough for him,” Stout said.

But one day this December might just change everything.

On that day, Dustin wasn’t shooting baskets alone. He was joined on the basketball court by Bob McSwain, a professional photographer.

McSwain is part of a national program called the Heart Gallery. The program provides portrait photography for kids waiting for adoption.

“The social workers were using a Polaroid type picture,” McSwain said.

His challenge is to make Dustin's portrait so much more.

“Hopefully, what we come out with today, is something that will show this child and let their personality and their heart and their soul come out in the picture and appeal to someone,” McSwain said.

McSwain is hoping someone will see the photo and want to adopt Dustin.

“I heard someone say you're trying to show the soul of the child, so someone will come along and adopt them,” McSwain said.

McSwain’s pictures are finished, and now the next step will be to display them at the Heart Gallery showing sometime this winter in Greensboro.

There's evidence the effort might work.

In cities with the Heart Gallery program, adoptions have increased 40 percent, while inquiries have gone up 60.