Education
Public education is essential to end negative stereotypes and misinformation about adoption. The Adoption Institute's 1997 Benchmark Adoption Survey was the first public opinion research on American perceptions of adoption and revealed that six in ten Americans had personal experience with adoption. The survey also found that people who understand adoption from family and friends have a more favorable view than those whose only source of information is the mass media. In 2002, a second survey on adoption attitudes was published in partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
Both studies have been used to create a public education campaign aimed at ending negative stereotypes about adoption and helping waiting children find adoptive parents, as well as providing an accurate picture of the rewards, as well as the challenges, of adoption. As part of this campaign, the Institute is committed to developing and implementing high quality educational programs to better inform professionals who have arguably the most profound (and too-often negative) impact on public attitudes toward adoption - journalists and educators - as well as the needs of adoption professionals, including conferences, and others who work in the field. For a listing of current Institute initiatives, see Programs and Projects.
The Adoption Institute has partnered with Adoption Learning Partners, a provider of acclaimed, timely online courses for adoption professionals and families.
Read below to learn about how we and our partners help provide research-based educational opportunities for the adoption community.
- Online courses for:
- Continuing legal education
- Training materials
- Educating the media
- Educating the educators
- Other Webinars
Continuing Legal Education
The Adoption Institute – nationally recognized for its ethics-based policy and education initiatives – is now putting research into practice by offering continuing legal education courses for adoption attorneys. The Adoption Institute already addresses legal and policy issues affecting adoption through legal advocacy in our legislative system and courts and by issuing Policy Perspective briefs and papers. Now, by bringing together years of research and the knowledge and practice of experienced adoption attorneys, we are providing ethics-based continuing legal education courses to inform and educate attorneys as they navigate through the complicated legal issues of interstate, intrastate and international adoption practice.more
Online courses from Adoption Learning Partners
The Adoption Institute has partnered with Adoption Learning Partners, a provider of acclaimed, timely online courses for adoption professionals and families.
|
|
Courses for people preparing to adopt
|
Some of the courses that are specifically designed to help prepare prospective adoptive parents include:
The Journey of Attachment: Attachment is an essential component of any healthy, happy family. Adoption, however, may present challenges to the attachment process. This course provides practical tips on how to form and sustain this important bond. Learn more
Conspicuous Families: Race, Culture, and Adoption: Adopting a child of a different race or ethnicity presents challenges parents may not expect. Develop the skills needed to address common issues of racial identity and prejudice in transracial adoptions. Learn more
Let's Talk Adoption: A Lifetime of Family Conversations: This course pulls from the wisdom of adoptive parents, adopted persons and adoption professionals to help parents identify and overcome barriers to discussing adoption. Learn more
Click here to see additional courses for prospective adoptive parents
|
|
Courses for adoptive families
|
Courses that are particularly helpful for those already parenting adopted children include:
Ain't Misbehavin': Discipline and the Adopted Child: The goal of this course is to help parents better understand potential causes for challenging behaviors and then develop effective adoption friendly discipline plans to address them. By encouraging children to make better behavioral choices, effective discipline results in happier, more connected families. Learn more
Finding the Missing Pieces: Helping Adopted Children Deal with Grief and Loss: It is natural for adopted children to grieve the life and family they never knew, no matter how open the adoption or how happy their life with the adoptive family. This course provides adoptive parents with the tools needed to successfully address those feelings. Learn more
Lifebooks: Creating and Telling Your Child's Story: A Lifebook is a book created for an adopted child that tells his story, before and after adoption. The Lifebook helps all children place foster care or adoption in the context of their life experiences. The Lifebooks Course helps adoptive families understand the purpose of a Lifebook and the need to start or to continue to develop one. Learn more
Click here to see additional courses for those already parenting adopted children
|
|
Courses for professionals
|
Adoption Learning Partners offers courses approved for CEU credit by The National Association of Social Workers (NASW):
Ethical Considerations for Social Workers: Infant Adoption: CEU Course (1.0 credits): This course covers social workers' ethical considerations in infant adoption, focusing specifically on the treatment of women considering an adoption plan for their baby. Key principles of social work and child welfare are explored and then applied to real life scenarios. Learn more
Medical Issues in International Adoption: CEU Course (2.5 credits): This course provides an overview of the common medical issues and specific conditions internationally adopted children may face. Learn more
Becoming your Child's Best Advocate: Help for Adoptive Parents: CEU Course (2.0 credits): Advocacy begins even before a child joins his or her adoptive family and continues throughout childhood. This course has tips and techniques presented here that are useful to all parents, biological and adoptive, no matter where they may live. Learn more
Click here to see additional courses for professionals
Research Based Training Materials
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute - already a nationally recognized leader in research and policy development - is extending its efforts to implement systemic change through the training of adoption professionals with the aim of educating adoptive parents about the issues they - and their children - may face. The Institute is well known for its research on critical issues in adoption and foster care, and for its high-quality and high-impact initiatives to inform the public and professionals; promote ethical practices; and support legal, policy and practice reforms. Now we have developed research-based training materials to improve the preparation of adoptive parents, with the goal of helping families succeed. more
Educating the Media
Through its unique work with the media, the Institute strives for ethical and equitable treatment of everyone in the adoption community. Executive Director Adam Pertman conducts trainings for journalists for our Educate the Media Program, while he and senior staff frequently provide interviews and research-based materials on a broad range of adoption-related subjects. Even more often, our research is used as background and is cited by journalists nationally and around the world. more
Educating the Educators
The following is a list of resources for educators, including the Institute Educate the Educators Program, adoption training curriculum, and resource guide. The Institute's unique Educate the Media and Educators programs are intended to better inform two groups of professionals who have arguably the most profound (and too-often negative) impact on public attitudes toward adoption and everyone it touches, especially children. Our trainings and materials have already proven highly effective, and we plan to grow both programs in the years to come. more
Webinars
The Adoption Institute also sponsors and participates in other timely and topical educational webinars throughout the year. more
.