New Jersey Adoption Resource Clearing House

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 free 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.

WHEN: Thursday, September 3, 2026 from 10:00-11:30 AM

WHERE: Zoom

COST: FREE!

Parents as Advocates for Their Child with a Disability

This empowering workshop equips parents and caregivers with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to effectively advocate for their child’s educational and developmental needs. Participants will learn communication strategies, documentation tips, and how to build collaborative partnerships with schools.

 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm AZ Time

Do you live in Arizona and are considering adopting an infant? Learn about Spence-Chapin’s Domestic Adoption Program for Arizona families! This free 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 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. Please register for a webinar event that corresponds with the state where you live by visiting our Events Calendar.

If you are unable to register for this webinar, please contact us to learn about other upcoming event opportunities or discuss additional pathways to grow your family through domestic infant adoption.

In this adoptee-led program, we will navigate adulthood alongside a supportive community of peers and adult adoptee Mentors. Hosted September through June via monthly Zoom meetings, this group welcomes adoptees ages 18-24 worldwide.

Free, 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.

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

FREE!

The Meet the Model series from the Post-Adoption Center introduces the core components of the Post-Permanency Model, designed to guide states, tribal nations and territories in delivering coordinated services to adoptive and guardianship families. The model is outlined in detail in the Post-Adoption Center’s Program Manual, which services as the blueprint for building comprehensive, community centered and accessible post-permanency services. We break down the 253-page manual into smaller pieces. This session focuses on the Respite Care Component.

Join us to learn about our new Costa Rica Adoption Program. Our Costa Rica Adoption Program is open to singles, married couples, and welcomes gay and lesbian parents. In this webinar, we will detail the pathways to adopt from Costa Rica. We will share information about the system of child protection in Costa Rica. We will discuss common medical and special needs of children who are awaiting adoption in Costa Rica. We will speak about eligibility factors for prospective adoptive parents in Costa Rica. Bring your questions – we’ll save time for Q&A.

Numerous fears can take over adoptive parents when considering openness or being in an open adoption. If left unnamed and unaddressed, these fears can lead to attempts to control or avoid the tough stuff, in the name of safety, protection, or keeping things simple. In this workshop we will name some of these common fears – all of which deserve compassion and understanding – so that adoptive parents can move forward in a more authentic, loving, and child-centered way. This workshop is geared toward adoptive parents and the professionals working with them.

Presenter: Susan DG Leksander, LMFT, (she/her), is a Latina first mother and transracial domestic adoptee. A licensed psychotherapist specializing in the adoption and foster care triads, she joined Pact in 2016 as a parent consultant, first/birth family advocate, and coordinator of trainings for service providers. When Pact became a licensed adoption agency in 2017, Susan was appointed its founding Agency & Clinical Director. She launched Pact’s Center for Race & Adoption Focused Therapy (CRAFT) in 2021, and was selected as Pact’s second Executive Director in 2025.

Price: $0.00

Voices of Adoption (V.O.A.) is a virtual space for adopted people 18+ world-wide to join in conversation, meet peers and talk about the topics that are important to them. Hosted by Jessica M. Luciere, transracial adoptee born in Bogota, Colombia, and Manager of Community Engagement at Spence-Chapin, V.O.A. welcomes adopted people of all backgrounds to experience community amongst other adoptees.

•  1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Eastern Time
•  10:00 am – 11:00 am AZ Time

Learn about Spence-Chapin’s innovative host-to-adopt program that prioritizes adoption for children from Colombia, ages 10-13 years old. For families who are open to older child adoption, this pathway provides both you and the child an opportunity to get to know each other and commence the bonding process during a multi-week hosting period in your home. Two different hosting periods are available – a five-week opportunity over the summer, or a three-week opportunity in December. Host families need to complete a home study with Spence-Chapin prior to being matched with a child for hosting, so now is the right time to learn more and get underway with your home study!

This program is open exclusively to families residing in New York, New Jersey, Arizona, and Florida, so that our local social work team can fully support you and the child during the hosting period.

Cost: $15

“Calm down, sit down, and be quiet” may be words we heard when we were acting out as children, and sometimes they may come out of our mouths when we are really frustrated by our children’s behaviors. We will explore what brain science teaches us about what is going on in a child’s brain and body during a crisis and how trauma responsive approaches guide us to direct their energy and behavior and help them regulate.

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

Course Price: $350

Mondays, September 14, 21, and 28, 2026 |
12-2pm EST/11am-1pm CST/9-11am PST

This 3-session, 6-hour interactive course taught entirely by professionals who are also adoptees will address the accuracy of what the mental health community thinks it knows about the adoption experience. Addressing the history and ethics of involving those with lived experience, this course takes a fresh approach on assessment and how therapists can become more conscious throughout the treatment process. Lifelong factors will be addressed, and case examples will be used for participants to work through.

6 CEs Available!

Cost: Free

Children who have experienced trauma need more than behavior management; they need felt safety, connection, and consistent support to build resilience. This webinar, Building Resilience and Security in Your Child, introduces parents to practical, research-informed strategies grounded in the neuroscience and the Circle of Security. Participants will learn how trauma impacts the brain and nervous system, how to respond to underlying needs rather than surface behaviors, and how to strengthen secure attachment through everyday interactions. Walk away with tools to help your child feel safer, more regulated, and better able to grow, connect, and thrive.

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 of 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.

FREE!

Educational Advocacy is a key component of a post permanency program yet is not always offered or is fragmented from program design. Without the right support, school can quickly become a major source of stress for both the child and the family. Come listen to states providing high-quality programming in this area to consider how to expand your programming with this powerful service.

As parents, we want to create the best possible lives for our children so that they may become their best selves. We want to instill our values, surround them with people who are a good influence, and maximize their development in all areas. So how does valuing their connections with birth family fit in? We will explore common concerns around contact, a continuum of options to help you find the right form of openness for your family, and the many benefits of honoring your child’s connections…including strengthening their connection with YOU.

Cost: FREE

This two-part webinar series provides a developmentally grounded exploration of how to support adopted and foster children across the lifespan, from infancy through adulthood. Attendees will examine stage-specific health and safety considerations, ranging from newborn care practices like safe sleep and the foundations of early attachment to the evolving physical, emotional, relational, and cognitive needs of adopted children as they grow. The series will also examine thoughtful, developmentally responsive approaches to discipline that account for trauma, attachment, and identity development, alongside educational considerations that promote engagement and resilience in school settings. The speaker will provide practical, real-world applications that caregivers and professionals can use to more confidently and effectively support each phase of adoptee development.

Part 2: Ages 10 Through Adulthood (September 15th) – Focuses on adolescence and adulthood, including identity development, behavior support, school-related considerations, independence, and lifelong support needs.