New Jersey Adoption Resource Clearing House

An activity based counseling group for children ages 7-9

The group will meet for eight sessions on Thursdays September 26, 2019 – November 21, 2019 (not October 31st)

Group Goals:

• Improve skills in self-regulation and using effective coping strategies
• Identify personal stress responses and coping styles
• Build self-esteem and increase self-awareness
• Gain appreciation of similarities and differences with others
• Improve conflict resolution skills
• Establish group unity and have fun!

Join us on Wednesday, November 20th, at 2:00 PM EST for a webinar on the challenges and disparities children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) face in accessing supports and services. This webinar will present findings from a recently published brief by Child Trends with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The webinar will highlight national data from the National Survey of Children’s Health on CYSHCN and their families’ demographics, as well as access to and quality of health care and other types of services. We supplement national data findings with data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, which illustrate the varying experiences for CYSHCN depending on where they live. Finally, we will examine access to a medical home among CYSHCN, as well as to the separate medical home components: access to a personal doctor or nurse, family-centered care, effective care coordination, and accessible health care services. There will be time included for participants’ questions.

Thinking about starting a birth parent search? Curious about search and reunion? Want to hear stories from others who have reunited with birth relatives?

Join us for a night of conversation about the complexities of search and reunion. No matter where you are in the search process, you’ll walk away having connected with other adoptees who can relate to your experiences and understand the questions you may have.

This event is for adult adoptees 18 and older. Advance registration is required.

To learn more, please contact us at (646) 539-2167 or postadoptionservices@spence-chapin.org

Miriam’s Heart hosts the Adoption & Foster Care 101 (formerly Coffee Fellowship) semi-annually for families interested in learning more about adoption and foster parenting We share our adoption and foster parenting experiences, speak about the priority of adoption for the church, and will have the opportunity to fellowship together!  We’ve invite social workers and representatives from the State of NJ (DCPP), Holt International, Adoption Options (formerly Lutheran Social Ministries of NJ) and America World Adoption Agency in addition to stocking the room with experienced adoptive and foster families, and if we are lucky enough – an adult foster child or adoptee!

 This evening will:

•  Offer ways to take action on behalf of vulnerable children;

• Answer your questions and offer perspectives on adoption and parenting an adopted/foster child;

• Provide a time of fellowship and networking with other prospective adoptive/foster parents, adult adoptees/foster children and adoptive and foster families;

 If you want to consider your calling to adopt or foster, are an adoptee yourself or an adoptive or foster family, this event is for you!

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APC’s annual conference serves to promote a better awareness and understanding of adoption and provide members with accurate information concerning adoption and parenting issues.

Conference participants will have the opportunity to attend numerous workshops, seminars, lectures and panel discussions. Led by professionals and experts in the adoption field including attorneys, social workers, physicians, adoptive parents, agency representatives, adoptees and educators, the workshops provide up-to-date information as well as a forum for discussions.

An unspoken truth about adoption industry is the privileges that are extended or denied based on class.  For many families of color who built their families through adoption or the foster care system there are class dynamics at play. This seldom discussed reality is a vital conversation to building connection and challenging dynamics Participants will build a deeper sense of the role that economics play in who is deemed fit to parent as well as who is not. Learn strategies from adoptive parents of color for having honest conversations within our families and communities about these uncomfortable realities in order to support more honest and supportive conversations in adopted youth and adults lifetime journey.

Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth 

Presents

16th Annual Suicide Prevention Conference

Topic:  #Social Media & Suicide

Cost of Conference: $95.00

An information session to learn more about different types of adoption offered through Bethany Christian Services, including Domestic Infant Adoption, Foster Care Adoption, and International Adoption.
Please RSVP to office at 201-703-4371.

Learn more about the adoption process in general and working with A Loving Choice Adoption Associates in particular at one of our complimentary information meetings. There is no fee to attend, but registration is required. Call or go on the website to register.

Join Spence-Chapin social workers for an exciting 2-hour workshop where adopted youth create masks to explore multiple facets of their identity. During this workshop, we will discuss our inner and outer selves, including how adoption influences both. Mask-making is a valuable tool to spark meaningful conversation between families while being creative together.

Spence-Chapin will provide supplies, but families are welcome to bring any art supplies or special mementos that they’d like to incorporate into their masks.

Recommended for adopted youth (ages 10 and older) and their parent(s).

Fee: $50/ family

Nationwide, the adoption discussion is too often missing the perspective of first/birth parent voices and instead dominated by the voices of adoptive parents. This bias masks the fact that every adoptee has two sets of parents, birth and adoptive.  When first/birth voices are missing, the message is sent to adoptees that their origin, the beginning of their life story and the connection to their first heritage and family is not important, not worthy, or perhaps is even something to be ashamed of, or overcome.

Designed for pre-adoptive and adoptive parents, this workshop will help you examine your fears, feelings, and preconceptions. Hear from several birth/first parents about how they are processing and managing their own adoption experiences. You will hear about different adoption scenarios including open adoptions with ongoing contact and adoptions where contact is challenging. We will offer insight into creative ways to maintain connection with first/birth parents who have engaged in unsafe behaviors. This webinar is appropriate for all members of the adoption triad and adoption professionals.

$36 per person non-member

Special pricing Pact member receive 25% discount.

The SSWR Annual Conference offers a scientific program that reflects a broad range of research interests, from workshops on the latest quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to symposia featuring studies in child welfare, aging, mental health, welfare reform, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Over 500 symposia, workshop, roundtable, paper and poster presentations. Research methods workshops designed to enhance methods expertise and grant-writing skills and special sessions on research priorities and capacity building that target cutting-edge topics vital to contemporary social work research. Pre-conference programs and a networking reception especially for doctoral students.

Creating Change 2020!

Creating Change is a space that allows for expressing political differences, but we ask that this be done with respect for each other. This may be difficult at times, but our challenge is to stay open and not shut down or silence others. We choose to honor everyone’s dignity and humanity celebrating their right to be who they are – to be whole. We challenge ourselves to recognize and disrupt power dynamics that have perpetually harmed people, particularly Black and brown people, for generations. All of us are invited to challenge our assumptions about each other and our complex identities.

This workshop provides lived experience from educated, experienced adoptive parents that will include tips that we wished our younger selves had known and understood earlier. You will receive practical guidance on how to create a plan for parenting that includes managing the unknowns. We will cover topics including: handling your own fears, understanding how children understand & experience adoption, why the words we use matter, why beginning with a child’s birth makes sense, how to talk about first/birth parents, responding to difficult behaviors in children (and ourselves), answering and anticipating children’s questions, whether they ask them or not and reworking parenting expectations such that children don’t receive the message that we are disappointed in who they turn out to be. Experiences include same race adoption and transracial adoption, kinship adoption, foster adoption, infant adoption, closed adoption and open adoption. Expect honest conversation about the challenges and the joys and remember hindsight is often 20-20. This webinar is appropriate for pre-adoptive and adoptive parents as well as professionals working with these families.

$36 per person non-member

Special pricing Pact member receive 25% discount.

Transracial adoption for parents of color is becoming more common in the adoption community. In contrast to white adoptive parents, people of color understand first-hand what it means to be racially marginalized and have experienced racism first hand, but when parenting transracially they are not necessarily familiar with the specific microaggressions and oppressions that those of their child’s race and ethnicity experience. How can parents of color prepare to better understand the “–isms” their child will face and be ready with tools and steps to support their child? How can they educate themselves on the history and beauty of their child’s race and ethnicity? How do they handle the racial hierarchies and/or historical conflicts between people of their race/ethnic group(s) and that of their child’s racial/ethnic group? Learn how adoptive families of color, parenting across race, took steps to prepare themselves for transracial adoption and the continued work they do to support their child’s race and culture. This webinar is applicable to pre-adoptive and post-adoptive parents of color parenting across race and professionals working with this population.

$36 per person non-member

Special pricing Pact member receive 25% discount.

SHARING IDEAS THAT STRENGTHEN FAMILIES
AND ENGAGE COMMUNITIES TO PROMOTE CHILD WELL-BEING

All proposals are due no later than Friday, August 2, 2019.

We look forward to receiving proposals that share the best ideas and proven strategies from around the world that focus on strengthening families and engaging communities to promote child well-being. We want proposals that describe endeavors at program and systems levels, including how they are planned and developed. We also encourage sharing strategies for policy and organizational change as well as funding.  Outcomes are valued, especially the research and evaluation designs.

Hear from adopted adults about their adoption journey including the role their first/birth parents/families have had in their lives and understanding of their own identity. Too often in the adoption field, the adoptee perspective is subordinated to that of the adoptive parent. Pact believes that adults with first-hand experience are the truest experts on that experience. The voices of Latinx adopted adults, born both domestically and internationally, will be featured. They will address issues including language, gendered narratives about Latinx cultures, the importance of ethnic-specific connections, culture-specific approaches to adoption and search (both transnational and domestic).

“Charting a Course for the Future of Adoption”

Hear from adopted adults about their adoption journey including the role their first/birth parents/families have had in their lives and understanding of their own identity. Too often in the child welfare field, the adoptee perspective is subordinated to that of the adoptive parent. Pact believes that adults with first-hand experience are the truest experts on that experience. The voices of Asian adopted adults, born both domestically and internationally, will be featured. They will address issues such as being the ‘model’ minority, gendered narratives about female adoptees value in Asian cultures, exotified identities for Asian women and invisible masculinity for Asian men. Culture-specific approaches to adoption and search (both transnational and domestic) will also be addressed.

$36 per person non-member

Special pricing Pact member receive 25% discount.

The “Let’s Talk Adoption” conference is a dynamic and educational event coordinated entirely by CPFA volunteers in conjunction with the Rutgers School of Social Work and the New Jersey Interagency Adoption Council.  The goal is to educate and support those involved in the adoption constellation.  This non-profit conference has received accolades throughout its 35-year history by both parents and professionals.

CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS

Proposals due on or before December 3, 2019