New Jersey Adoption Resource Clearing House

FREE!

Having the opportunity to be surrounded by those who understand your family’s journey is a vital experience. There is sometimes a lack of understanding for the intersecting experiences LGBTQ+ families face. Such families require environments that honor those experiences, as well as spaces that provide opportunities to connect with individuals from similar family types.

C.A.S.E. looks forward to providing that space for your family.

Each group will meet virtually via ZOOM on the third Thursday of each month.

Meeting dates: 10/24/24, 11/21/24, 12/19/24, 1/16/25, 2/20/25, 3/20/25, 4/17/25, 5/15/25, 6/19/25, 7/17/25, 8/21/25

FREE!

This support group is designed to support adoptive parents who face the complexities of supporting children with both attachment and developmental issues. The support group will provide education, intervention ideas, space for members to share creative successes, and opportunities to work through challenges involved in engaging systems (medical, school, community) that are not always understanding of the special needs of adopted children or those with developmental challenges. Members will be asked to share their concerns and needs when signing up for the group so that the facilitator can incorporate information specifically relevant to those attending.

Each group will meet virtually via ZOOM on the second Thursday of each month.

Meeting dates: 11/14/24, 12/12/24, 1/9/24, 2/13/24, 3/13/25, 4/10/25

Join us for an evening of connection, community, and discussion with fellow adoptees. Facilitated by Amy Trotter, Director of Post Adoption Services and Elliot Bliss, Supervisor of Adoptee Programs. We are excited to start this new monthly group!

Here are the dates for the upcoming drop-in groups!

• January- Tuesday 14
• February – Tuesday 11
• March – Tuesday 11
• April – Tuesday 15
• May – Tuesday 13

This is a free event open to adults of color who were adopted or are former foster youth. Space will be provided for participants to explore and share experiences around international adoption, foster care, transracial/interracial adoption, search and reunion, birth/first family and other topics of interest to the group.

This is an opportunity to come together and lean on other expecting and birth parents; to share your thoughts and feelings with others who have had similar experiences. Attendees are not required to stay for the whole meeting, nor obligated to speak/share. To RSVP, email Amanda Aliberti at AmandaA@afth.org

Join Pact’s Executive Director and fellow adoptive parent, Beth Hall, to find community and talk about transracial adoption, race and identity issues that may be coming up for you or members of your family. The focus for these calls is transracial adoption.

These calls are open only to current members of Pact. If you have not purchased a Pact membership (or your membership is not current) you can join at pactadopt.org.

We invite you to be part of a special evening of Broadway performances that celebrate Family in all its beautiful iterations. Join an incredible ensemble of performers as we showcase what Family means in our lives through song, dance, and joy.

All proceeds from the event go to support the work of Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children who, for more than 115 years, has helped grow families of all shapes and sizes through adoption, and provided them with lifelong support and connection to community.

Institutionalization affects every child’s language and literacy development. Signs of delay can be obvious or obscure; show immediately or years later.  This presentation will review the latest literature regarding the language abilities of post-institutionalized children adopted at older ages. It will discuss language development of older children post-adoption, explain the difference between conversational and cognitive language competencies,  as well as provide recommendations on best evidence based practices working with these children. *If you are unable to attend live, the recording will be sent to you following the event to watch within a 30-day window.

**Holt is sponsoring this webinar – to attend for FREE, enter coupon code: Holt24

NYC Teen Mentorship welcomes adoptees ages 13-18 years old in a group mentoring program that meets once monthly from September to June.

Fee: $110.00

Emotional cutoff, a Bowen family systems theory concept, describes how unresolved emotional issues with parents, siblings, and other family members are managed by reducing or totally cutting off emotional contact with them – moving away and rarely going home or by staying in physical contact but avoiding sensitive issues. Covering cutoff origins and consequences, this workshop also explores how bridging cutoffs provides a path out of recreating the past in the present nuclear family while reducing anxiety and improving personal and relationship functioning.

Monthly  virtual support calls provide a safe space for BIPOC adoptive, foster and kinship parents of BIPOC teens and young adults.

Join Raquel Vivanco, Director of the Adoptive Parents of Color Collaborative (APCC) and fellow adoptive parent, to find community and talk about parenting adopted and foster teens and young adults of color, including challenges, and helpful strategies. We will discuss how relationships shift as our young ones grow in their journey and how we can support ourselves and our loved ones.

These calls are free to current members of Pact. If you do not have a current Pact membership you can join or renew at pactadopt.org.

This call is for people of color who are parenting adopted/foster teens and young adults of color.  Please be respectful of their space.

Spence-Chapin is thrilled to partner with the experts at Your Adoption Finance Coach to provide our families with free access to experts, tools and content that can
take the worry out of financing your adoption. In this webinar, we will be joined by Kelly Ellison, adoptive mother and Founder and CEO of Your Adoption Finance Coach. Kelly will discuss how grants and fundraising can help offset the costs of adoption.

We welcome you to submit your questions ahead of time via the registration link, and we welcome further questions during the event.

The Birth Mother Gathering Committee is pleased to invite you to the 28th Annual Birth Mother’s Gathering! This year’s Gathering will take place at Spence-Chapin’s headquarters in Union Square. We hope you will be able to join us this year as we share, connect, and come together for another special gathering.

Please RSVP by emailing our Events Manager, Toni Schweizer, at tschweizer@spence-chapin.org.

Space is limited so please RSVP as soon as possible and before April 28th.

Are you considering growing your family through adoption? Please join us in-person to learn about how Spence-Chapin can support you in your adoption journey! You will be hearing from experts in Spence-Chapin’s international and domestic adoption programs as well as Spence-Chapin adoptive families about:

• International Adoption in South Africa, Colombia, Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean

• Domestic Adoption in New York and New Jersey

• Home Study Services

Families interested in applying to one of Spence-Chapin’s International Adoption Programs or Domestic Adoption Program can obtain a program application by attending this event!

FREE!

This event is at 8:00AM Arizona time.

Do you live in Arizona and are considering adopting an infant? Learn about Spence-Chapin’s Domestic Adoption Program for Arizona families 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. Our team will share details about the adoption program, including the application process, open adoption, demographics of the children in need of adoption, the matching process, options counseling for birth parents, and more!

Bring your questions! The meeting will include ample opportunity to have your questions answered.

Spence-Chapin’s Domestic Adoption Program is open to residents of Arizona, New York, and New Jersey. If you reside in New York or New Jersey, please register for a webinar dedicated to Spence-Chapin’s Domestic Adoption Program for New York and New Jersey families. These events can be found on the Events Calendar page of Spence-Chapin’s website.

If you are unable to register for this webinar, please contact us to schedule a call to discuss additional pathways to grow your family through domestic infant adoption.

Join us for an info session from Nanchang Project to learn about the DNA and birth search services they provide. Some Nanchang Project members will be presenting and will be available to answer any questions that you may have. Once registered, you may submit questions prior to the event through a google form link that will be provided.

The event will not be recorded. Please let us know if you need any accommodations, we will be happy to accommodate to the best of our ability.

Finding and meeting her birth mother in her twenties was only the beginning of adoptee Susan Ito’s search for answers. In her memoir, she grapples with her own reproductive choices, the legacy of Japanese American incarceration during World War II, her mixed-race identity, and the true meaning of family. I Would Meet You Anywhere is the stirring culmination of Ito’s determination to know and tell her own story. We will discuss the complex experience of adoption throughout an adoptee’s lifespan.

Target audience: All triad members and professionals Author’s Forum
*Author’s Forum: Read an important book by an adoptee author or research expert, then attend a live interactive discussion with the author to learn more about their insights into the adoption experience and system.

Join Pact’s Executive Director and fellow adoptive parent, Beth Hall, to find community and talk about parenting adopted and foster teens and young adults of color, including challenges, helpful strategies and how to support yourself and your loved ones.

This call is open to current Pact members only. If you have not purchased a Pact membership (or your membership is not current) you can join at pactadopt.org.

Join us to learn about our Colombia Adoption Program. Our Colombia Adoption Program is open to singles, married couples, unmarried couples, and welcomes LGBTQ+ parents. In this webinar, we will detail the pathways to adopt from Colombia, including pathways available to individuals without Colombian Heritage as well as pathways available to individuals who hold a Colombian Cedula. We will share information about the system of child protection in Colombia and will share photos of some of the children’s homes where children reside while in protective care. We will discuss common medical and special needs of children who are awaiting adoption in Colombia. We will speak about eligibility factors for prospective adoptive parents in Colombia. Bring your questions – we’ll save time for Q&A.

** We have chosen the Go to Webinar Platform to respect that during the exploration phase, some families are not yet ready to share their hopes to adopt with others and in Go to Webinar, your names and faces will not be visible to other participants. But we are always happy to support families in building an adoption community! If you do feel ready to connect with other pre-adoptive or adoptive parents, please let us know and we can facilitate introductions for those who wish to be connected to other families.**

These support groups provide safe space where LGBTQ+ adoptive and foster parents of children of color can find community and talk about their parenting joys and challenges, intersections with our own queer identities and helpful strategies.

This call is open to current Pact members only. If you have not purchased a Pact membership (or your membership is not current) you can join at pactadopt.org.