An article for The Republic and azcentral.com published late November highlighted the challenges that some adoptive families face that lead to a disruption or dissolution of an adoption. The article highlighted one family whose adopted child struggled with mental health and behavioral issues so extreme, the family felt they had no other options but to [...]
Sometimes videos of people sharing their experiences are the most profound. As we near the end of National Adoption Month, we have put together some resources for videos on a variety of topics related to permanency and adoption. Adoption Learning Partners is a resource for educational resources about adoption for professionals, parents, adopted individuals and [...]
Transracial adoption has always been controversial. Whether or not you agree with the practice of transracial adoption, it is important that child welfare and adoption practitioners and foster and adoptive parents understand that transracially adopted children and youth will have additional identity development needs and concerns than same-race adoptees. Just as every adopted person feels [...]
What does it feel like to be adopted? Check out these voices of the adoptees themselves. A fantastic Minnesota story by American Radio Works from 2007 featuring siblings Chris and Amanda in Wanted: Parents. The story is here, the audio is here (transcript of the audio is here).Roger's story for Wanted: Parents - A Place [...]
Online social networking sites allow youth in foster care and adoption to connect with others who have shared their experiences. However negotiating social relationships - online ones included - can still be tricky. Youth can can be at risk, and for foster and adopted youth, issues such as who to trust, what to share, and [...]
Today we are bringing you family perspectives. From the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections, their series Digital Stories from the Field includes foster/adoptive family perspectives. These eleven videos provide a variety of experiences of families that have adopted children and youth from foster care. A diverse group of perspectives are included: LGBT [...]
Social media can be a tool for promoting adoption and it can also be tricky to manage. Adoption agencies might fear using social media because of concerns for privacy issues and unfamiliarity with the social media tools. However, social media is being used more and more by adoptive parents and children and youth, so it [...]
During the celebrations and hoopla that National Adoption Month brings, it can be easy to forget or dismiss the reality that adoption is not always the fairy tale ending to a child's life. A child brings with him or her a lifetime of pre-adoption history that is often very difficult and filled with trauma. Trauma [...]