New Jersey Adoption Resource Clearing House

New Jersey Parents’ Caucus (NJPC) is offering a FREE Professional Advocacy Training program for parents, grandparent, and other caregivers raising children with emotional and behavioral challenges who are involved in the mental health, juvenile justice and/or child welfare system. Parents and caregivers attending the training are given the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge of the systems, and the advocacy, professional, and collaborative skills needed to successfully negotiate those systems. Parents and family members will become better able to advocate for themselves and their communities, resulting in increased access to appropriate care and treatment for all children. The Professional Parent Advocacy training is approved for foster, adoptive and kinship training credit through NJDCF.

Lunch will be served or gift cards will be provided. Early registration is recommended. The training classes will be offered Virtually OR at Mr. G’s Kids community learning center in Paterson.

Dates: Sept. 16th, Sept. 30th, Oct. 14th, Oct. 28th, Nov. 11th.

Time: 10:00 a.m.  – 2:00 p.m.

FREE!

The Parents of Teens Support Group is for adoptive and foster parents of teenagers looking to make connections and build a network of support with other parents in a similar stage of life. This six-week virtual support group begins on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 and will meet each Wednesday through October 25, 2023 from 6:00-7:30 PM(EST). This is a drop-in group and participation at every session is not required. Please note, certificates of attendance will not be provided.

This 6-session virtual support group will be held on the following Wednesdays (drop-in):
Sept. 20th, Sept. 27th, Oct. 4th, Oct. 11th, Oct. 18th, Oct. 25th

Full Series: $175.00

Individual Session: $30.00

The purpose of this group is to provide a space where LGBTQ+ parent(s) and prospective parents can support one another, learn from each other, and explore topics related to personal identity, parental identity, the joys and challenges of being an adoptive family, best practice sharing, and more! If you are looking to connect with other LGBTQ+ families or planning to grow your family through adoption, this group is the place for you!

Dates: October 3 / October 10 / October 17 / October 24 / November 7 / November 14 / November 21^st

Time: 7-8:30pm

Full Series: $175.00

Individual Session: $30.00

In this group we will create a supportive place to explore both the joys and difficulties of being an adoptee. We will discuss topics related to your adoption journey, identity formation, and search and reunification. For those who have found their birth families, hope to know them, or have fears about this journey, this is the space for you!

Dates: October 5 / October 12 / October 26 / November 2 / November 9 / November 16/ November 28^th

Time: 7-8:30pm

Are you confident in your ability to find, engage, or place a child with family outside of the United States? If you’re like the majority of child welfare professionals, the answer is: probably not.
Through the use of case examples, this webinar will examine the importance of family connections for children in care and explore barriers to—and opportunities for—engaging with family resources across borders.
The webinar will be co-facilitated by International Social Service, USA (ISS-USA), a non-profit organization offering cross-border case management for international services, and a supervising adoption field specialist from the New Jersey Department of Child Protection and Permanency.
Together they will provide resources and action steps that help ensure children in care with non-relative resource families are given equitable access to permanency with kin. This is part of a culturally responsive approach to permanency planning. Participants will gain practical tools for permanency planning with children, whose family connections cross international borders, including logistical details on how to work with ISS-USA as a service provider in this area.

Viewing & Live Discussion

Receive a pre-recorded webinar to view prior to attending a live conversation and Q&A session.

What is your little one thinking and feeling about adoption? Preschoolers are very concrete thinkers. They are just beginning to learn about things like “same and different” and to apply their new understanding to everything, including friends and family. Each stage of their development will challenge you to grow along with them!

Target audience: pre-adoptive and current adoptive parents, first/birth parents, professionals.

Fee: $50.00

AFTH wants families to make informed decisions when completing their profile keys. Dr. Erin Meyer is an Internal Medicine and Pediatric Hospitalist who worked in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She is also an adoptive mom, and can speak from both professional and personal angles. She will be discussing the effects of drug and alcohol use on the newborn during pregnancy as well as withdrawal symptoms and short and long term effects of exposure. There will be a time for questions. Each family has to decide what situations are right for them. Many families came away from this class feeling comfortable opening their key.

Link is emailed 1 2 business days after registering.
Registration DEADLINE is Noon the day prior.

Don’t miss the 3rd annual plan-building and connection-making guided experience for those raising kids with reactive attachment disorder.

There’s something for everyone along the journey. Something for you. Find your people. Leave with a roadmap designed just for your family.

NavRAD23 registration opens this summer. Our support members get first dibs on registration and early-bird tickets, followed by our e-mail subscribers and then the general public. 

Our International Team is excited to host this webinar and to share information about adopting from South Africa. Spence-Chapin is proud to have the longest history of any US-based agency of facilitating adoption from South Africa and we work with adoptive families living across the entire United States. The South Africa program welcomes adoptive applicants regardless of marital status or sexual orientation. In this webinar we will discuss common medical and developmental needs of children who are currently living in South Africa and waiting for their forever families. We will provide an overview the adoption process. We look forward to answering any questions you may have about adoption in general and specific questions about adoption from South Africa.

There are so many considerations when choosing your pathway to adoption. When considering international adoption, perspective adoptive parents often wonder, “What are the steps in an international adoption?”, “Will I be eligible for the country program I’m considering?”, and “Are there differences in the common characteristics of children placed for adoption in different countries?”

We’ll explore these questions and more. We’ll provide an overview of the adoption process and talk about the home study experience and about the reasons that one family may work with two agencies to complete an international adoption – one agency to complete the home study and another to manage the placement processes. We’ll talk about eligibility and the characteristics of children placed in Spence-Chapin’s South Africa and Colombia programs, then talk about how Spence-Chapin can support your family if you choose to adopt from a different country. Bring your questions! We’ll save time for Q&A.

CWLA is pleased to offer From Discussing to Doing, a two-part virtual training focused on Race, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The training is designed for executive and mid-level management leading health and human service nonprofit organizations or government agencies who may be considering launching a Race Equity program within their organizations, or for leaders who are considering re-launching DEI programming which may have stalled.

The training will focus on several areas that require leadership consideration pre-implementation of a DEI program such as political climate, data, leadership commitment, and, most importantly, will aid the leader with assessing their personal values and biases which might impact their efforts.

The training will also provide participants with resources and tools such as resource libraries, implicit bias tests, and organizational assessments. These tools will assist leaders to host initial conversations internally, as well as with the community and implementation team, and to develop an action plan. The overall objective is to provide the support needed to move leaders from “discussing to doing.”

Join Pact’s Adoption Social Worker, Katie Wynen, for a FREE, virtual orientation to learn about the adoption process and placement program with Pact. Pact supports expectant/birth parents who are specifically seeking adoptive parents of color to adopt their baby. These are no-obligation opportunities to gather information about the adoption process with Pact.

Participants will learn about Pact’s ethical and child-centered approach to adoption placement. We will review the home study process and what will be required, the timeline and costs of domestic infant adoption with Pact, and other services and programs that Pact offers in addition to placement. This webinar is particularly focused on the experience of pre-adoptive parents of color interested in adoption, but parents considering transracial adoption are also welcome to attend.

Voices of Adoption (VOA) is a space created by adoptees for adoptees! Adoptees (adopted people) 18+, born internationally and domestically are invited to share in this open space to meet, connect and create community via discussion. Hosted by Jessica M. Luciere, a transracial adoptee and Adoptee Advocate. This is a FREE event for adopted people only.

Half-day series of workshops are open to pre-adoptive parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, foster children and adoptees.
Topics include: Who am I? The Complexity of Teen Identity, Verbal Diffusion and Defense Skills, Your Best Health Starts with You, Tips for School Success, Pet Time with the Pups, Sensory Stations / Identity Tree Crafts, “Can we Talk?” Parents Only Discussion and More. Many of the sessions have corresponding sessions for the youth.

Free for current CPFA members, $25 fee per family for non-members.
This fee will entitle your family to a year of CPFA membership. The conference includes a continental breakfast. A light lunch/networking session will be offered at the end of the workshops to meet and speak with professionals and other parents and adoptees on a more intimate level. A complementary pizza lunch will be included.

To register visit: https://fs17.formsite.com/cpfanj/Family/index 

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.

1.5 CEs/Contact Hours | Free for live attendees

This webinar will help adoption professionals support adoptive families through setting healthy boundaries that are oriented on the child’s needs rather than boundaries that are based on fear and insecurity. These strategies can help families move toward greater connection, curiosity, and confidence. Considerations will be discussed for adoption from foster care, private domestic infant adoption, and international adoption.

CWLA is pleased to offer From Discussing to Doing, a two-part virtual training focused on Race, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The training is designed for executive and mid-level management leading health and human service nonprofit organizations or government agencies who may be considering launching a Race Equity program within their organizations, or for leaders who are considering re-launching DEI programming which may have stalled.

The training will focus on several areas that require leadership consideration pre-implementation of a DEI program such as political climate, data, leadership commitment, and, most importantly, will aid the leader with assessing their personal values and biases which might impact their efforts.

The training will also provide participants with resources and tools such as resource libraries, implicit bias tests, and organizational assessments. These tools will assist leaders to host initial conversations internally, as well as with the community and implementation team, and to develop an action plan. The overall objective is to provide the support needed to move leaders from “discussing to doing.”

A one-day online training event for adoption professionals!

Join NCFA for this high-impact day of training and education designed for adoption professionals to advance their skills and knowledge base for improved service provision to the adoption community.

Building on previous presentations on these topics, this event allows you to earn social work CE in a convenient and affordable learning environment.

Our upcoming Heart-to-Heart will center around The Adoption Triad. We will be featuring a complete triad, one of which will include a birth mother, adoptive mother, and adoptee. This triad will share their experience with the adoption process, the highs and lows along the way, and how they got to where they are today. This triad is unique in that they have a very positive story and strong relationships with one another, which we know is not always the case. While this story is positive, the triad definitely had bumps along the way and put in a lot of work to achieve the relationships they have today. The goal of this conversation will be to show the positives that can come from an open adoption, but also acknowledging that positive relationships with both a birth parent, adoptive parent, and adoptee can be a challenging thing to achieve. This event will make for a compelling conversation that you are not going to want to miss!