Judges, interviews and a trip to Westminster
A busy spring for the Adopteens. In early May we attended the Family Justice Board conference on ‘Adoption in The modern world’ with Lord Justice Cobb, Julie Young from university of East Anglia and Mark Owers from Adoption Leadership board. Here we showcased our timeline and two young people talked about their Adoptions with emphasis on contact. In particular how support from their adoptive parents, social workers and others has made a huge difference to them in terms of identity; understanding and accepting their life story, having unanswered questions and their satisfaction with their relationships with birth family members. Judges, Barristers and others who work in the family courts were very grateful to our young people for giving them lots to reflect on especially when thinking about how well thought out and supported contact can have such a meaningful impact on families.
Shortly after this Adopteens attended the All Party Parliamentary Group at Westminster where a young person joined the panel to share their families experiences of the Adoption support fund, the therapy & support they have received and give the reality of what difference it has made. A more positive advocate would be hard to find for the impact is almost visible in how eloquently they spoke. In addition the panel were keen to hear about school experiences & other areas that the young person felt could be improved. Feedback was exceptional and we are now waiting to hear what next!
And to end May, two members of Adopteens sat on a One Adoption interview panel for the recruitment of a service level manager, where they devised their own questions and had a impact on the final appointment. They certainly made the candidates work hard, if not sweat a little.
