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Jaiya John will be giving the luncheon keynote address on November 8 at the 17th Annual Adoption Resource Network at Hillside Children’s Center Conference on Adoption “The Changing World of Adoption.”
Jaiya John’s poetic keynote celebrates the promise and the impact of adoption and similar family arrangements. Jaiya defines culture as a person’s way of existing in the world. This definition brings every child under the same tree; a tree rooted in our human need to feel as though we are beautiful (worthy, valid, positively unique and similar) and as though we belong (possessing an honored purpose within the collective). The challenge we face is in learning to honor children in the context of their purposeful individual uniqueness. Honoring children creates serenity, healing, and growth in each family member. In this holistic cultural approach, families learn to celebrate each member’s unique heritage, life story, and identity as a pathway to healthy relationships.
Throughout the afternoon Jaiya will also be conducting a book signing of his child service-related titles Legendary; Beautiful; Reflection Pond and Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib. Learn more about Jaiya John and Soul Water Rising’s global human relations mission at www.soulwater.org.
Workshop Session during the conference:
Jaiya’s workshop session will not be a “workshop” in the conventional sense, but rather a question-and-answer discussion addressing issues that were raised for participants during Jaiya’s keynote presentation. This will be a conversational session, without exercises or handouts. Here is your chance for hear-to-heart on the issues that are significant to you.
As a pioneer in the field of adoption and post adoption services, Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, Ed.D., LCSW, LMFT, knows that the world of adoption has changed since her own adoption sixty years ago.
“So many things have changed. In the early days of adoption it was a supply and demand kind of situation,” notes Pavao. Today, she thinks it is more important for anyone involved in the adoption process to be child-centered–to find families for children rather than find children for families.
Once those families have been found, and an adoption has been finalized, Pavao advocates for the utilization of post adoption services to overcome the challenges in “understanding and making sense of adoption” for all parties—birth family, adoptive family and adopted persons.
“The importance of post adoption services is challenging. There is a lot of loss involved and often trauma as well. Providing services in an ongoing way is very important,” says Pavao.
She notes that the job of the new adoptive parent is to be aware of, and sensitive to, identity issues the child may experience so as to make the youth more comfortable during the transition and afterwards.
Pavao points to the increasing trend of gay and lesbian couples adopting to explain her opinion. In the past, she says that one of the partners in these couples had to act as a single parent to adopt. Now, people are more overt about their sexual orientation. That they are gay or lesbian is important to their identification as a family and that is to be considered as they go through the adoption process. She argues that secrecy did not work in adoption of old, and secrecy does not work in the present.
“These are people that are good people that want to be parents,” says Pavao.
And as the world of adoption continues to change, the desire to be a parent and welcome a child into a family is one constant Pavao views as an important characteristic that anyone interested in adopting should have.
More of Pavao’s take on the changes occurring in the world of adoption can be heard during the morning keynote address “The Changing World of Adoption: How Far Have We Come,” which she is scheduled to deliver during the Adoption Resource Network at Hillside Children’s Center’s 17th annual conference: “The Changing World of Adoption” being held on November 8, 2008, at the Bay Trail Middle School, 1760 Scribner Road, Penfield, NY 14526.
“I think the conference is terrific. Everyone should consider attending. They will be surprised and will learn something about themselves, their loved ones, and their community,” says Pavao.
Registration for the conference is now open and can be done online at http://www.hillside.com/Services/Adoption/conference.htm. For more on the work Dr. Pavao is doing, log on to The Center For Family Connections web site at http://www.kinnect.org. Her book is The Family of Adoption, Beacon Press, 2005.
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