On January 3, Forever Families Through Adoption, an agency and resource center in Rye Brook, held an interactive discussion about adoption with Rye Middle School students. The agency sent two social workers, Vanessa Bush and Becca Leitman, to educate and address adoption issues with approximately 100 students.
Vanessa Bush, MSW shows the "The Many Faces of Adoption"
display board of famous adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents.
Since 2007, Forever Families Through Adoption has provided workshops for hundreds of middle and high school students throughout New York and Connecticut as part of their community outreach program. "It's important to raise awareness on adoption issues to provide basic information and correct misconceptions and myths about adoption in order to increase sensitivity towards those who were adopted, have made adoption plans, or are adoptive parents," according to Joy S. Goldstein, LCSW, ACSW, co-founder and Executive Director of FFTA and an adoptive mother of three.
The group discussed various topics including different types of adoption, the adoption process, making an adoption plan, the steps involved when considering adoption, famous adoptees and famous birth parents, and positive adoption language. After the discussion, the students participated in an activity called "Step the Line," where they were asked to step forward in response to statements made about adoption that applied to them. "It was amazing to see how many students in the classroom were connected with adoption in one way or another; it affects the lives of so many, which just emphasizes even more the need for adoption education in the community," according to Bush.
For more information on Forever Families Through Adoption, visit www.foreverfamiliesthroughadoption.org.
