Weekend adoption conference

Save the dates! New York City–Friday, October 24^th and Saturday, October 25^th

Keynote Speakers for the Conference

* Dr. Harold Grotevant—Professor and Chair of The Rudd Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Psychology and Adoption at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

* Debbie Riley—Author of “Beneath the Mask,” Executive Director of Center for Adoption Support and Education in the Baltimore/Washington area

* Dr. Gary Mallon—Professor and Director of the Post-Graduate Certificate Program in adoption therapy, Hunter College School of Social Work in NYC

* Holly Van Gulden—Director of the Adoptive Family Counseling Center in Minneapolis, MN

Unusual internship idea

COLAGE, a national movement of children, youth, and adults with one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) parents, is accepting applications for its 2008-2009 Fellowship Program on transracial adoption and LGBTQ families. Transracially adopted youth with an LGBTQ parent are urged to apply.

Fellowships are full-time positions, will run for 7-9 months between September 2008 and May 2009, and will do assessment, outreach, resource development and programming for transracially adopted youth with LGBTQ parents.

COLAGE Fellows also have an opportunity to learn about national non-profit work, including advocacy, research, community building programs and events, and leadership development programming. For further information click here, and to apply, contact:

COLAGE

1550 Bryant Street, Suite 830

San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: 415-861-5437

Another great conference opportunity

The 5th Biennial Adoption Conference for 2008 is now in the planning stages. Click here for info on the conference and the call for papers.

This unique adoption conference is co-sponsored by St. John’s University and Montclair State University. The last conference (in October 2006) was well-attended by adult transracial adoptees. I loved that conference for this reason: it was not focused only on adoptive parents’ issues, and it offered a great opportunity for adoptees (and others) to meet and come together to build community.

As you can see from the conference description, this conference differs from many other conferences on adoption in significant ways. For one thing, it is not designed for pre-adoptive parents looking for information on how to adopt. It does offer tons of information about what to expect after you adopt (or if you are affected by adoption).

The focus of this conference is on post-adoption issues as they affect all members of the adoption triad- adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents (and other family members), as well as interested professionals, clinicians, and researchers. By way of full disclosure, I’m on the planning committee this year. Hope to see you in New York in October!