New Jersey Adoption Resource Clearing House

2020 – 2021 Monthly Strengthening Your Family
live stream webinar series

For Parents and Professionals

The first 600 registrations are FREE each month

Join us as we discuss attachment-based, trauma-informed, connected parenting strategies that are designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. We will be using “The Connected Child” by Purvis & Cross to guide our discussions.

The Connected Child has helped countless adoptive and foster parents better connect with their children as they seek to love and care for them.

Register to Join the Coalition for Trust Based Parenting in the AFFCNY.Network!

Join us every Tuesday from 7 to 8:30 PM from June 8th to August 24th, 2021.

$45 per person non-member. Special pricing Pact members receive 25% discount.

CEU Workshop – Title IVE Project Coordinator from UC Berkeley, Christina Feliciana, and advocate, Katarina Sayally, present a candid and critical discussion of child welfare reform in this unprecedented year of racial reckoning. Join us as we radically imagine a different way forward for families. Appropriate for child welfare professionals and all community members who care about the well-being of children.

PST Time, CA

Start: June 16, 2021 11:00 AM
End: June 16, 2021 1:00 PM

Thinking about adopting as an LGBTQ parent? Join us for a FREE webinar that will shed light on adopting, including an overview of the home study process, state regulations for second parent adoption, and how to select an affirming adoption service provider. Bring your questions – there will be plenty of time for Q&A!

$36 per person non-member. Special price Pact members receive 25% discount.

You were adopted and now you’re an adult reflecting on your childhood. Your relationship with your adoptive family is changing. Your relationship with your birth family is changing. Maybe you have no contact with your birth family and now you want to search, or perhaps you’re a late discovery adoptee or an adoptee “coming out of the fog.” Adoption does not end at placement; it’s a lifelong journey and adult adoptees are thinking, processing and managing an array of emotions. This workshop, led by adult adoptees—who are also mental health specialists—will offer compassionate support and concrete guidance to adult adoptees as they navigate the continuous and ongoing journey of being adopted. The professionals will be able to speak to their work and share what they have learned about the adult adoptee journey after placement. Tools and steps to process and heal will be discussed. We will create space for attendees to share and ask questions about feelings they are having, behaviors they might be expressing and more. This workshop is for adult adoptees.

PST Time, CA

Start: June 23, 2021 11:00 AM
End: June 23, 2021 12:30 PM

Considering adopting an infant? Learn about Spence-Chapin’s full-service Domestic Adoption Program during this free webinar! This webinar is the first step for families interested in applying to Spence-Chapin as all webinar attendees will receive a Domestic Adoption Program application.

This event will open for registration on Thursday, June 10th at 1PM EST

Join host Zack Fried, transracial domestic Adoptee, in an evening of discussion for adoptees who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. In honor of PRIDE month, this space was created to not only support the adoptee voices, but adoptees who identify as LGBTQ+. This open platform will allow those in attendance to hear and learn from one another, and to share the adoptee experience from our perspective. The LGBTQ+ community’s light is often dimmed, and this VOA discussion is a chance for attendees to openly and safely talk about any and all aspects of being adopted and LGBTQ+. This will be a FREE event and will be hosted virtually via Zoom and is only open to the LGBTQ+ adoptee community.

$36 per person non-member. Special price Pact members receive 25% discount.

In this webinar, we’ll outline the process of creating your Dear Expectant Parent(s) letter to introduce yourself to expectant parents considering an adoption plan. Participants will learn how to begin their letter, which topics to address and discuss ideas about the types of pictures and language to use. We will provide example profiles for content ideas and layout and describe how this letter will be part of your future child’s story. We will offer suggestions for how to be honest and set the tone for a relationship with your child’s first/birth family that they—and you—can be proud of later.

This webinar is applicable to pre-adoptive parents.

PST Time, CA

Start: July 14, 2021 11:00 AM
End: July 14, 2021 12:30 PM

Join us virtually July 20–23, 2021 for this four-day educational event that covers a wide variety of foster care and adoption topics—to meet the diverse needs and levels of experience of adoptive and foster parents, child welfare professionals, and people who were adopted or in foster care.

Attendees will be able to participate live online, listen to recorded sessions, or do a mixture of both.

$36 per person non-member. Special price Pact members receive 25% discount.

The opposite of being racist is to be antiracist.

Talking about race is never easy, but you can get more comfortable with practice. Remember, silence speaks volumes. White people in particular have to push beyond self-examination into action. This requires that we interrogate our own privilege and think seriously about what it means to be not just an ally, but to stand in solidarity with the mission of antiracist movements. In this webinar, we’ll discuss steps you can take that will better prepare you to have these difficult conversations—and to have them frequently. It’s what our children need and what the state of our society demands.

PST Time, CA

Start: July 28, 2021 11:00 AM
End: July 28, 2021 12:30 PM

$36 per person non-member. Special pricing Pact members receive 25% discount.

Adoption starts with placement or removal, and first/birth families are left navigating it for the rest of their lives, often with very little support. This workshop for first/birth families, led by therapists specializing in open adoption and first/birth family issues, will offer compassionate support and concrete guidance. There is no one guide to open adoption for first/birth families, and open adoption is complicated. It solved many of the problems of closed adoption, but created new problems as well as opportunities. In this workshop, we will address self-care and healing for first/birth families as we navigate all the variations, from recent search and reunion to long-term open adoptions. We will also discuss some guideposts to assess whether you are on the right track in keeping your child/ren centered while also acknowledging the importance of your own needs, even if they can’t or won’t be met. This workshop is for first/birth family members.

PST Time, CA

Start: Aug 4, 2021 11:00 AM
End: Aug 4, 2021 12:30 PM

$36 per person non-member. Special pricing Pact member receive 25% discount.

Children study much more than reading and math in school; there, they learn how the world operates beyond their own home. If they are lucky, they’re taught to search for commonality and to appreciate differences in their classmates and then in the people of the wider community. One of the ways kids are taught about the world and people around them is through assignments that focus on family. When these assignments are broadened purposefully to be inclusive and respectful of many diverse family models, children growing up in “non-standard” families can relax and learn. Too often, however, these assignments are not sensitively designed.This webinar will focus on strategies for navigating school and supporting children who join their families through adoption. We will reflect on some of the challenges that families experience in navigating schools and work to develop action plans. We will also  explore positive examples of what’s possible in schools.

PST Time, CA

Start: Aug 25, 2021 11:00 AM
End: Aug 25, 2021 12:30 PM

$45 per person non-member. Special pricing Pact members receive 25% discount.

CEU Workshop – As the landscape of private adoption providers continues to be heavily dominated by for-profit facilitators, attorneys and do-it-yourself online matching services, solid ethics in voluntary infant placement and adoption become all the more critical. This workshop will raise questions about current practices in voluntary placements, especially as they impact interactions with expectant parents and pre-adoptive parents. We’ll identify specific questions that pre-adoptive and expectant parents considering domestic infant placements can ask to determine practices that are ethical, non-coercive and child-centered and encourage adoption professionals to hold themselves to high ethical standards.

PST Time, CA

Start: Sept 8, 2021 11:00 AM
End: Sept 8, 2021 1:00 PM

For over 30 years, the Conference has been the premier gathering for adoption professionals to get expert training and continuing education. This year will be no different. Choose from sessions in the Clinical Practice or Leadership and Management Track, featuring a lineup of inspiring, experienced speakers and topics of critical importance for the field of adoption.

From the convenience of your home or office, you can earn up to 12 CE credits* through an affordable, engaging virtual conference experience. Equip yourself and your team, for improved practice and effective leadership.

$36 per person non-member. Special price Pact members receive 25% discount.

Words and rituals are important methods of human communication through which we tell our stories and underscore our values. Words not only convey facts; they also evoke feelings. When outsiders to the experience of adoption use words that seem to place meaning or be biased regarding adoption, those who have first-hand experience can take offense or feel uncertain as to whether that outsider is an ally to them. How adoptive parents, first/birth parents, and other important adults talk with children about adoption, can have a big impact and demonstrate the underlying narrative that children will internalize about themselves and their identity.

PST Time, CA

Start: Sept 22, 2021 11:00 AM
End: Sept 22, 2021 12:30 PM

$36 per person non-member. Special price Pact members receive 25% discount.

A practical, developmentally grounded discussion for parents of color about talking to children of color about race in the context of the white Supremacy that permeates their world and ours. Parents will explore how to introduce and expand conversations in a manner reflective of their child’s developmental stage and be presented examples of how other families, educators and scholars think about strategies for balancing race-based pride with discussing the realities of oppression.

PST Time, CA

Start: Oct 6, 2021 11:00 PM
End: Oct 6, 2021 12:30 PM

$36 per person non-member. Special price Pact members receive 25% discount.

Considering transracial adoption begins with asking oneself the question: What is your motivation. Is it focused on what your child would need or your own desire or need to become a parent? Transracially adopting parents (parents adopting across racial lines) are better prepared to be successful if they are educated in advance about race, racism and how these issues will play out in the context of a family in which children and parents do not share the same racial identity. Even when they know race matters, many families, especially white adults, have questions about whether or not to be colorblind in a “postracial” context in order to avoid the pain and possible damage of racism. Preparing others for a racialized life begins with honesty about your own navigation of your personal racial landscape.

PST Time, CA

Start: Oct 20, 2021 11:00 AM
End: Oct 20, 2021 12:30 PM