It’s National Adoption Week 2022

Monday 17th October 2022 marks the launch of National Adoption Week 2022, which this year focuses on the theme of identity and will explore adopted people’s reflections on their relationships from before, during, and after they were adopted, connect them to their heritage, and understand how this helped them develop a sense of their identity as they grew up.

To mark the start of National Adoption Week, You Can Adopt has released a short film exploring the relationships and memories of four adopted people, as they look back through memory boxes and keepsakes from their lives before and after they were adopted, which have helped them develop and have an impact on their sense of identity. The film brings to life the connections that adopted people make and how their sense of identity has been formed through various connections in their lives – including birth families, foster carers, friends and adoptive parents.  View the film here: www.adoptionmatters.org/naw2022

Anne Fleming, Adoption Matters Head of Service Adoption Support commented:

“Adoption Matters is proud to support this year’s campaign and recognises the importance of lifelong support to families, children and adopted adults. We have been providing support to adopted adults connected to Adoption Matters for over 50 years. We are also aware that many adopted adults may not have any memories or keepsakes from their birth family or life before they were adopted and this can be very hard for many.

Adoption Matters Centre for Adoption Support helps facilitate an adopted adults support group, Adoption Connections, who meet once a month online.  It’s a safe space run by adopted adults for adopted adults which we proud to support”.

This year’s National Adoption Week campaign highlights that adoption is not a line in the sand, when adopted people close the door on all connections to their life, memories, and relationships from before they were adopted. It is so important for each person to have the information and connections to their life before adoption. That’s why, during National Adoption Week, we’re urging people to find out more about what adoption involves today as there are still over 1,900 children waiting for a forever home through adoption.

Adoptive Dads, Peter and Andrew share their story this week and talk about some of the reasons why they chose Adoption Matters for their own adoption journey, one of the most important being our ethos and ongoing support:

Peter commented: “What we liked about Adoption Matters is their ethos. I remember the support they give you throughout the whole process and after the adoption was everything for us.

Andrew continued: “Yes, we really like their whole ethos basically because we’d done a whole lot of research on other adoptive agencies and we just kept coming back to Adoption Matters. It just felt right. It’s a feeling you get, you can’t really describe it”.

The couple, from the North West, adopted their little boy right at the start of lockdown so support was vital at such a difficult period for everyone! View their adoption story here: www.adoptionmatters.org/case_study/peterandrew/

Adoption Matters offer ongoing support to their families and adopted adults. Their Centre for Adoption Support and Therapy Service offer unique services supporting adoption and permanency and during National Adoption Week is launching freely available online video resources so that knowledge from their skilled and experienced team can be passed on to families and professionals working with children and young people. This free resource is available here: https://www.adoptionmatters.org/onlinetraining/

During the week Adoption Matters is hosting an adoption information session on Wednesday 18 October at 9:30am To register a place at an adoption information session visit: www.adoptionmatters.org/events

To download an adoption information pack visit: www.adoptionmatters.org/contact-us/#form

To view the free video resources for parents and professionals visit: https://www.adoptionmatters.org/onlinetraining/