The journey of intercountry adoption is often complex, challenging and lifelong. You may have read and seen many of ICAVs blog posts and resources that bear witness to how isolating the journey can be if we haven’t connected to our peers or found adequate post adoption supports.
In order to enable the community to have better visibility to some of the supports being provided by the community of lived experience, on June 1, ICAV hosted an online Virtual Fair to showcase 20 of the USA based adoptee led organisations who are doing this work. My goal was to help the leaders and the wider community get to know these incredible organisations and the services they offer. There is definitely a different edge to what lived experience can provide as adoptees in post adoption support compared to other organisations who are not led by adoptee experience.
Currently ICAVs Post Adoption Support and Adoptee Led Group pages are the only space where post adoption services (both formal and informal) are provided and listed, elevating supports that are led by adoptees, from all over the world.
Watch the recording of our event. It was an incredible way to elevate the work the USA based adoptee community is doing to help themselves.
Subtitles avail in English, click on the CC button.
Order of presentations
Welcome and About ICAV : Lynelle Long, Kayla Zheng, Daniel N Price
I Am Adoptee : Joy Lieberthal Rho
Adoptees With Guatemalan Roots (AWGR) : Ben Fossen
325Kamra : Linda Papi Rounds
Alianza of Colombian Adoptees (ACA) : Jacob Taylor-Mosquera
The Eftychia Project : Linda Carroll Forrest Trotter
Italiadoption : Diana Miller
Adoptee Hub : Dr Jewel Kwon Evans
Operation Reunite Vietnam : Trista Goldberg
Network of Politicised Adoptees (NPA) : Lindsay Plunger
Ethiopian Adoptees Foundation (EAF) : Daniel Gerber
BIPOC Adoptees : Mai Li O’Keefe
Nanchang Project : Cassidy Sack, Katie Lauder
Adoptee Mentoring Society (AMS) : Juliet Rubin Ramirez
The Adoptee Group (TAG) : Sasha Frugone
Ties – Adoptive Family Travel : Tanya Kaanta
Adoptees United (AU): Gregory Luce, CS Wright
Also-Known-As (AKA) : Lindsay Geier
Chinese Adoptee Alliance (CAA) : Anna Cohen
AIRE Roots : Diego Vitelli
Fireside Adoptees : Amanda Baum
Huge thanks to the 20 adoptee led organisations who participated. Some of the organisations specifically represent support for the following birth countries: Guatemala (Adoptees with Guatemalan Roots), South Korea (325Kamra, Adoptee Hub), Colombia (Alianza of Colombian Adoptees), Greece (The Eftychia Project), Italy (Italiadoption), Vietnam (Operation Reunite), Ethiopia (Ethiopian Adoptees Foundation), China (Nanchang Project, Chinese Adoptee Alliance).
The other organisations offer support for all intercountry and transracial adoptees regardless of birth country, similar to ICAV. They are: I Am Adoptee, Network of Politicised Adoptees, BIPOC Adoptees, Adoptee Mentoring Society, The Adoptee Group, Ties – Adoptive Family Travel, Adoptees United, Fireside Adoptees, Also-Known-As, AIRE Roots.
Resources
Community building in adoption and adoptee spaces
Lived Experience Workforce Guidelines
Lived Experience Governance and Leadership Training
A role for lived experience mental health leadership in the age of COVID-19
Lived experience peer support programs for suicide prevention: a systemic scoping review