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ACC
STRIVES TO HELP CANADA'S WAITING CHILDREN
By Diane Riggs
"Securing
and supporting a nurturing and permanent home must be a goal
for all children."
So reads
one principle underlying the Adoption Council of Canada's
(ACC) policy determinations. Started as a steering committee
at the first National Adoption Conference in Ontario in 1982,
ACC's staff have been working for more than 20 years to raise
adoption awareness across Canada and promote adoptive placements
for the country's 25,000 permanent wards.
Adoptive
parents formed ACC to bridge communication gaps between provinces
and join together different elements of the adoption community.
Unfortunately, ACC could not count on either federal or provincial
support for the new organization; in the early years ACC relied
on dedicated volunteers.
Since
1997, when the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Wendy's
Restaurants of Canada first provided financial support, ACC
has been able to devote considerably more time and effort
to finding families for waiting children that provinces refer
to ACC for recruitment. The past six years have also better
educated ACC about the challenges, rewards, and techniques
of family recruitment.
CHALLENGES
When it
comes to recruiting adoptive families, two differences between
the U.S. and Canada immediately come to mind: federal involvement
and child privacy.
The U.S.
government directs policy, provides funding, creates initiatives,
collects data, and annually proclaims its support for the
adoption of children in foster care. The newest federal initiative
is a national online photolisting of waiting children.
In Canada,
care and planning for permanent wards is handled province
by province with virtually no federal oversight or support.
In the interest of protecting children's privacy, many Canadians
are also opposed to publicly displaying (as through online
listings) children who need homes.
Without
federal oversight, most provinces have devoted child welfare
budgets to the work of child protection and foster care. Until
recently, adoption work has been a low priority within provinces,
and nearly non-existent between provinces. Canada is also
home to many different aboriginal peoples (including First
Nations, Métis, and Inuit) who have varying degrees
of involvement in child welfare services for their people.
The diversity of policies and processes between peoples and
provinces makes cooperation between them especially challenging--more
difficult than state-to-state interactions.
REWARDS
One of
ACC's long-standing goals has been to recruit families for
waiting children across Canada. In 1997, six years after becoming
incorporated, ACC finally earned a grant and ongoing support
that has made Canada's Waiting Children program possible.
Funded
through the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, with ongoing
support from Wendy's Restaurants of Canada, ACC's waiting
children program includes four main components:
1. Annual
adoption-themed posters displayed by Canadian Wendy's restaurants
(as well as agencies, workers, parent groups, etc.). Unlike
the U.S. posters that, between 1996 and 2001, featured photos
of waiting U.S. children, the Canadian posters have typically
featured adoptive families.
2. A web
site. Anyone who wants to learn about adopting one of Canada's
permanent wards can find general adoption information, parent
support groups, and links to other online resources at www.canadaswaitingkids.ca.
To view online photos and profiles of children available for
adoption, visitors must have a password.
3. A toll-free
phone line. First used on the Adoption Month posters and related
material, ACC's 888-54-ADOPT number is being used ever more
widely. Since 1998, ACC's toll-free number has been listed
with Alberta's Wednesday's Child features, and since November
2002, the number has been listed in the long-running waiting
child feature ("Today's Child") in the Toronto Star.
The number also appears in radio and television Public Service
Announcements.
4. Follow-through
services. Informed ACC staff answer the toll-free line directly
or return calls. They also respond to an increasing tide of
e-mail queries. Those interested in adopting receive a packet
of information that includes a photolisting booklet of children
who are available for adoption. When someone wishes to pursue
adopting a particular child, ACC refers him or her to the
child's worker.
Given
the barriers ACC has faced, outcomes have been impressive:
- During
the program's first month, ACC fielded more than 800 calls.
In general, ACC now responds to more than 14,000 inquiries
each year.
- While
provinces referred just four children to ACC's recruitment
program in October 1997, by October 2002 more than 500 children
had been referred.
- About
180 of the referred children have been placed for adoption;
in the process, more than 85 non-referred children have
also been placed.
- Eight
of the 10 provinces and three territories now refer children
to ACC's waiting child program.
- At
the end of 2002, ACC earned a three-year, $375,000 (Cdn)
grant from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption to continue
and enhance their program. Wendy's Restaurants of Canada
has also renewed its pledge to support ACC's work.
WORK
PHILOSOPHIES
Though
many recruitment challenges are different in Canada than in
the U.S., ACC's underlying philosophies easily transfer.
Be Persistent.
Bottom line, as the worker trying to find homes for waiting
children, you must be persistent. Don't take no for an answer.
If one opportunity dries up, look for another.
Encourage
Parents. Encourage qualified prospective adoptive parents
to persist in their efforts to adopt. Sometimes, reports Judy
Grove (ACC's new program director and past executive director),
would-be parents say that ACC is the only place they receive
encouragement during the often frustrating adoption process.
As one parent wrote, "We'd like to thank you for everything
you have done. You kept our hope alive and now we have the
best reward possible--our little girl's smile and laughter."
Forge
Relationships. The more positive connections you make with
other agencies, workers, media representatives, and members
of your community, the more opportunities you will have for
finding adoptive families. Take the first step by reaching
out to ask other people for help or offer your assistance.
Positive activities that make your agency or group visible
can help to bring together those who share your goal of finding
adoptive families for children who wait.
ACC's
poster project generated a lot of attention. Through the dissemination
and display of the posters, both prospective parents and agencies
got more familiar with ACC's name and mission. Now, through
online forms and information, as well as the toll-free phone
line, ACC makes certain that those who come looking for help
can find it.
Develop
Advocates. Everyone in your agency who comes into contact
with prospective adoptive parents should be a child and adoption
advocate. Agency staff who are both knowledgeable and passionate
about finding homes for children will keep far more would-be
parents interested in the process than staff who may be cordial,
but are not vested in the agency's mission.
Dedicated
staff can also help would-be adopters to become advocates--for
themselves during the adoption process, and for their child
after placement. Prospective adopters who have a realistic
sense of the challenges and possibilities of adoption, as
well as the determination to advocate for themselves and their
child, are better equipped to weather the uncertainties of
parenting a child with special needs.
Use Volunteers.
Whether helping to organize recruitment events, or doing odd
jobs around the office, volunteers can lighten the burden
without hurting the budget. If you have discrete tasks that
someone could learn with relatively little training, seek
out a volunteer or few. Students are one option. Some high
schools require students to perform a certain amount of community
service, and college students often need internships. Other
sources: programs that help people switch careers or get back
into the work force, companies that promote employee volunteerism,
and adoptive and foster parents.
During
its history, ACC has often relied on family volunteers. More
recently, they have used outside volunteers as well. Several
college students, for example, recently conducted a survey
to help ACC evaluate its materials and services. Other volunteers
have helped with mailings and worked on various research projects.
Take Advantage
of Luck and Timing. In child welfare work, success is often
tied to good timing, and sometimes furthered by simple luck.
Both can also be linked to awareness and knowledge. The more
you know about individual prospective families as well as
waiting children who are available, the more likely it is
that you will be able to make a connection when the time is
right.
A combination
of luck and timing enabled the creation of ACC's Canada's
Waiting Kids web site. Several years ago, an adoptive parent
published an article about the need for adoptive families
that included mention of ACC. When a woman from a web design
organization saw the article, she volunteered to design the
new web site free of charge.
A worker's
awareness of options can also keep families interested in
the adoption process. In one case, when a family came to an
agency looking to adopt from India, they were captivated by
a two-year-old East Indian boy available locally. Within six
weeks, the boy had joined their family. Another time, a worker
had to inform a family that the 14-year-old girl they were
considering for adoption had already found a placement. Fortunately,
the worker had the presence of mind to suggest that the family
consider two slightly younger sisters. The timing was right,
and all three children found permanence.
LOOKING
TO THE FUTURE
Good family
recruitment is hard work, but ACC is not about to give up
now. To help Canada do a better job of finding families for
its children, ACC is embarking on a project to work with officials
in Alberta and other provinces throughout Canada to develop
ethical guidelines for child-specific recruitment in Canada.
By working together with other provinces and territories,
ACC hopes to make certain that more of Canada's waiting children
can join safe, permanent, and loving families as soon as possible.
From the
Spring 2003 "Adoptalk", by the North American Council
on Adoptable Children; 651-644-3036; www.nacac.org.
Source:
Adoption Council of Canada, www.adoption.ca
Copyright
2003 Adoption Council of Canada. Reproduction permitted, if
credited "Source: Adoption Council of Canada, www.adoption.ca".
Please
make a request to reprint, so we can track the use of ACC
news items. Send your request to: Robin Hilborn,
helper@familyhelper.net.
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