The Donaldson Adoption Institute (DAI) was excited to kick off our Let’s Adopt Reform National Tour with our first Town Hall event last week in NYC. Our panelists, who maintain both personal and professional expertise in the adoption and foster care adoption experience, and our moderator, award winning CNN New Day anchor Michaela Pereira, engaged in a robust dialogue surrounding many pressing issues in adoption and foster care adoption today. Our live and virtual audience, with a combined total of close to three hundred people, added meaningfully to this vital conversation with questions and commentary. All told, the evening was an inspirational start to a bold new conversation about adoption and foster care adoption that DAI is hoping to ignite throughout the country.
It is no coincidence that we chose November, dedicated almost twenty years ago as National Adoption Month, to begin a more modern conversation about adoption. Adoption makes its way into the media and discourse more frequently during this month, in a variety of ways, and it is important to harness these opportunities to educate as well as reframe some aspects of the adoption and foster care adoption experiences. At times though, not all voices are represented in the conversation. Other times, representations of adoption are polarized in a dramatic manner, positively or negatively, that exclude the “in between” experiences that more aptly depict adoption.
There have been a variety of efforts to include historically marginalized voices in the adoption discourse, such as the #flipthescript campaign which focuses on ensuring the world hears from adopted persons in these critical conversations. Movies such as Philomena highlight the experience of a first/birth mother who spent fifty years searching for her son. Television shows like The Fosters portray a modern family structure with many of the ups and downs characteristic of all parents as they navigate relationships with their children in a complex world.
Although at times we see a better balance, the reality is, misperceptions and stereotypes continue to surround the adoption experience. This fact was uncovered in DAI’s recent public opinion research, those who live the adoption experience can attest to this, and we see the stereotypes in many other spaces. The problem with these misrepresentations is that they make it all the more difficult to influence needed changes in policy and practice that would help keep families strong.
We just haven’t moved far enough or fast enough, and so, we are inspired to start a new conversation. Within this modern day dialogue, DAI hopes to unravel current perceptions and experiences in adoption in order to have the transformational conversations we need to move forward together and ultimately strengthen families. This is at the core of the Let’s Adopt Reform initiative-strengthening families. Because whatever our distinct family experience is, the idea of ensuring strong families, and the advocacy needed to reach that goal, is something that likely resonates with all of us.
We need every voice to participate as we strive to explore the issues that matter most to us, collectively brainstorm meaningful solutions, and actively advocate for policies and practices that strengthen families. Join us as we create new spaces for new conversations. Join us as we #adoptreform.
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