National Adoption Awareness Month
Each year, November is recognized as National Adoption Awareness Month. While all adoption-related issues are important, the particular focus of this month is the adoption of children currently in foster care. Activities and celebrations are kicked off with a Presidential Proclamation, and while efforts made at the national level certainly help build awareness of adoption, participation in local programs, events, and activities by those of us with a direct connection to adoption can often be the most effective way to promote positive perceptions, debunk the myths, and draw attention to the tens of thousands of children in foster care who wait and hope for permanent families.
The Adoption.com Photolisting is the Internet's largest one-source listing of waiting children.
Adoption Month History The first major effort to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in the foster care system occurred in Massachusetts. In 1976, then-Governor Mike Dukakis proclaimed Adoption Week and the idea grew in popularity and spread throughout the nation. President Gerald Ford made the first National Adoption Week proclamation, and in 1990, the week was expanded to a month due to the number of states participating and the number of events.
During the month, states, communities, public and private organizations, businesses, families, and individuals celebrate adoption as a positive way to build families. Across the nation, activities and observances such as recognition dinners, public awareness and recruitment campaigns, and special events spotlight the needs of children who need permanent families. It also includes National Adoption Day, traditionally a Saturday, which is observed in courthouses across the nation as hundreds of adoptions are finalized simultaneously.
Get Involved & Plan Ahead
Promoting awareness can be done through planned events and campaigns, gatherings and celebrations, and simple everyday activities. These are all opportunities to educate ourselves and others about adoption and about issues surrounding adoption. With a little advance planning, our efforts can work wonders. Even one family for one child is a success.
Plan Activities Involve Elected Officials and Candidates
Even in non-election years, elected officials at all levels are supportive of efforts to build adoption awareness. Both current officials and candidates should be receptive to invitations to participate in events with family appeal. Don't be surprised if your invitations to speak, appear at, or host an Adoption Awareness event are readily accepted. And don't forget to suggest that public figures issue proclamations of their own!
Get an Early Start
Make your plans well in advance if you want to involve politicians.
Prepare Materials Using one of the many great ideas from our
Adoption Month Calendar, or an idea of your own, distribute information, bumper stickers, flyers, invitations to an event, or other material.
Talk to the Press
Before contacting the media with announcements and press releases, do your homework. Talk to your local social services department or your
state Adoption Specialist to make sure you have numbers, contact information for your organization and state social welfare offices to give media representatives, and a plan for handling information requests. (Check the
Adoption.com Media Tool Kit for ideas.)
30 Days of Ideas Adoption Month Calendar Use our
calendar as a guide for planning events, last-minute ideas, and easy family activities to celebrate your own adoption experience and reach out to others.
Attend an Event Our
Events Calendar is packed with a growing number of local events during November, including author readings, book signings, annual conferences, and informational seminars. Find one that fits into your schedule.
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Comments
I think this month is a great opportunity for women. Not only is it National Adoption Awareness month, but it is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. Since both these issues directly affect women and mothers, both first and adoptive and all those in between and surrounding, I think it presents a great opportunity for them to stand up and advocate for their own emotional and physical health. I know there are many women out there that are adoptive moms or first moms and have been affected by breast cancer, and I wonder what interesting ways we could combine these two important issues to invoke change during this month.
Posted by: backslash at 10/28/2005 12:14 PM
This listing of ideas provides a lot of great suggestions! It seems sad to me, however, that I had not heard of the existence of this month until I came upon this site, which leads me to believe that we still have a long way to go to try to promote awareness and action. Although this is election time in many states, I haven't heard anyone cite adoption/foster care reform as an issue of concern, although many are, as usual in recent years, citing family values, welfare and public education reform. Why is this? I guess this question is rhetorical, but it does bother me that, even though there is acknowledgement that the family units in the US are much more diverse than they used to be (there are families parented by gay and lesbian couples, multi-racial, mult-cultural families, single parent families, and of course, adoptive families of every shape, size, type, color, etc.). Since there are SO many adoptees and adoptive families, and even more critically, unadopted and un-fostered children in the country, it seems we really need to up the awareness of them in our government and start to make sure they are taken care of, represented and spoken for.
Also in this article was the mention of National Adoption Day, which I think is pretty amazing, and I wonder if there are any adoptees out there or adoptive families that finalized their adoption on that day, and what it has meant for you. It seems like it would be a special and exciting day to celebrate the expansion of your family and the beginning of a long life.
Posted by: bandstand at 10/25/2005 07:23 AM
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