Welcome to the 10th Biennial Adoption Initiative Conference 

The Evolution of Adoption Practice: Activist and Community Perspectives

Password for the Vimeo Video: AIC2022PAID

Keynote Panel: What IS the Best Interests of the Child https://vimeo.com/720236178

Jae Ran Kim (Moderator)

Zeina Ismail-Allouche

Ms. Shanyce Henley

Tara Linh Leaman

Links and Highlights during Chat: WIKI

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child .GOV

• https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/best_interest.pdf

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_interests

• https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child 

• On Your Feet Foundation: https://onyourfeetfoundation.org/

• https://ouramazingforeverfamily.com/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandine_Gay

• https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/Intercountry-Adoption-News/ukraine-ministry-of-social-policy-statements-on-child-safeguards.html

• https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPuy5g3n2AIyD2PES23yOcGr1uJzjLfDQ

• https://adoptionsurveysblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/results-in-naturalbirth-mom-perceptions-in-open-adoption/

Links and Highlights during Chat: 

WIKI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child

.GOV https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/best_interest.pdf

WIKI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_interests

On Your Feet Foundation: https://onyourfeetfoundation.org/

https://ouramazingforeverfamily.com/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandine_Gay

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPuy5g3n2AIyD2PES23yOcGr1uJzjLfDQ

https://adoptionsurveysblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/results-in-naturalbirth-mom-perceptions-in-open-adoption/

CONTEXT FOR LINKS AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAT

13:39:41 From Haley Radke // Adoptees On to Everyone:

Shanyce would you be comfortable sharing a link to your blog? I would love to read more about your experiences.

13:46:18 From Shanyce H to Everyone:

My blog is https://ouramazingforeverfamily.com/ I go by my middle name on the blog so you will see my post listed as Danelle. :) We post about once a month although we try to be more frequent hahaha.

13:51:07 From JaeRan Kim (she/hers) to Everyone:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child

13:53:48 From Derek Kirton to Everyone:

Part of the problem is that western (esp. Anglo-Saxon) legal systems construct best interests in individual terms, when oppression operates largely at group levels. Even more problematically, individual decisions in adoption can serve to mask wider structural oppressions i.e. the answer to poverty, domestically or globally is said to be more (individual) adoptions, which leave wider social forces untouched or even more entrenched. Best interests need to be understood, defended and advanced collectively (considering children rather than just 'the child'), as implicitly for example in ICWA, but as Susan H highlighted earlier, this (and its underpinning) is always vulnerable to attack.

14:27:14 From JaeRan Kim (she/hers) to Everyone:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandine_Gay

UKRAINE AT-RISK CHILDREN

14:16:09 From Mary Pollock(she/her) to Everyone:

What would best interest of the child look like in regard to displaced children and families within the context of the conflict in Ukraine? In this instance, it can be exceedingly challenging to maintain the child within their own country and even culture due to the mass displacement of millions of Ukrainians. What would be your perspective(s) regarding best interest of the child in cases such as this?

14:19:06 From Zeina Ismail-Allouche to Everyone:

Save the children has just made a statement to halt the massive adoption of Ukrainian children and allow time to re-unify the children with parents

14:20:10 From Amanda Baden to Everyone:

How do we manage all the rescue-religious adopters? There are some real dangers there.

14:20:12 From Mary Pollock(she/her) to Everyone:

What would be your recommendation with regard to next steps if reunification of these children with their birth families is not possible though?

14:20:32 From Doris Michol Sippel to Everyone:

Pres Zelinsky has put a stop to any adoptions out of Ukraine because of potential fraud, kidnapping, child trafficking,... He is, in fact, following what we have been promoting for years: countries need to take care of their own children, and, wealthy people should not see opportunities to grab up children as in Savior Complex. So, Ukraine's children are not going for international adoptions right now. It is in the News.

14:21:10 From Adam Pertman to Everyone:

Adoption should not even be a serious topic of discussion during situations like the one in Ukraine.

14:21:31 From Doris Michol Sippel to Everyone:

Exactly, Adam!

14:21:38 From Adam Pertman to Everyone:

Except to explain to people why it's a bad, inappropriate idea.

ADOPTION AS GENOCIDE

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPuy5g3n2AIyD2PES23yOcGr1uJzjLfDQ

OPEN ADOPTION

14:43:44 From Michelle to Everyone:

Agree with Shanyce 100%. APs seeing their adoptee's grief and loss makes them try to erase it. This leads to a majority of open adoptions being closed! Holding space for the adoptee's discomfort is a huge gift. 

14:53:00 From Michelle to Everyone: 

Question… New wisdom suggests open adoptions are supposed to be best for child, yet 76% fail. If the best interest for adoptee is center, how do we make open adoptions more successful? (… basing "failure rate" on this survey where 76% of Birth mothers said "Open Adoption Has Not Worked Well" and 61% said the adoptive family closed it, often against their will, and often between age 4 to 7) Source: https://adoptionsurveysblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/results-in-naturalbirth-mom-perceptions-in-open-adoption/

14:53:28 From Valerie Andrews to Everyone:

^^^^ This

14:57:26 From Adam Pertman to Everyone:

Enforceable agreements would be a good start, in my view.