My Adoption Agencies

February 19 - 21, 2007 Hotel Marlowe - Cambridge, MA

Join us to build a worldwide conversation about the extended Family of Adoption and to create understanding and change through dialogue.

Adoption is an interesting social construction that creates a very different unique understanding of family—adoption proves families are not only related by blood, by also by choice and chance. The community of adoption includes private and public service organizations, and legal and medial professionals from around the globe. This community must endeavor to establish and maintain the crucial connections among birth families, adoptive families, and adopted persons.

Center For Family Connections (CFFC) was founded in 1995—and existed under different names since 1975—to serve families, children, and professionals whose personal and/or professional lives are touched by adoption, foster care, kinship, guardianship, divorce, and other complex family issues.* CFFC is a non-profit, educational, and clinical resource center known internationally for its pioneering and innovative clinical work in the adoption field. CFFC has worked to develop a larger “Neighborhood of Adoption” and hopes to create an international dialogue about post-adoption-services. These efforts are Adoption Connections Training Institute: One World Neighborhood (ACTION).

ACTION proposes an international collaboration among many grass roots organizations, individuals, and agencies. The purpose of ACTION is not to debate what is right and wrong with the adoption process, but to work together to provide the best possible training, treatment, services, and psycho-educational tools for families and children, and for the professionals who work with them worldwide. ACTION has begun to establish a network that will exchange ideas, knowledge, models, and resources to provide the best possible services for all members of the extended “Family of Adoption.”

The goal of this 2007 ACTION conference is to have a conversation about what we are doing well, what we can share, what we could do better for the families, and most of all, the children in adoption. Through this conference, CFFC is creating a distance-learning institute for dissemination and best practices worldwide.

* What do we mean by complex blended families?
- Root families are families where the mother and father who gave birth to the child are also parenting the child together…
- Complex families are every other type of family structure…
- Complex blended families are a blending of many families by adoption, fostering, kinship care, remarriage, or alternative reproductive technologies.

About ACTION Adoption Conference
In order to hear and learn from the conversations of many experts in post-adoption services, the conference will include shorter ‘keynotelets’ and longer workshops, rather than long keynotes and presentations. This format will hopefully allow attendees to benefit from many diverse opinions, thoughts, models, and outcomes.

M o n d a y, F e b r u a r y 1 9
Keynotes:
~ Opening Thoughts to Guide the Conference: Dr.
Joyce Maguire Pavao (Massachusetts, USA),
Penny Callan Partridge (Massachusetts, USA)
and Fr. Thomas Brosnan (New York, USA)
~ What Adult Adopted People Want the World
to Know (Part I): Internationally Adopted Adults
Speak Their Mind
~ The Adoptee Who Came in from the Cold: Dr.
BJ Lifton (Massachusetts, USA)
~ Helping Adults who were Adopted as Children:
Nola Passamore (Toowoomba, Australia)
~ Participating in Contact After Adoption: Julie
Young (Norwich, UK)
~ The Role of Class in Adoption: Penny Callan
Partridge (Massachusetts, USA)
~ Borders and Margins: Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao
(Massachusetts, USA)
Workshops:
~ The Need for Continuity in Times of Transition
and Change: Justin Pasquarello (UK and
Massachusetts, USA)
~ Owning a Culture – Recognizing the Importance
of Owning One’s Culture: Astrid Dabbeni
(Oregon, USA)
~ Shamanism as a Paradigm for Selfempowerment:
John Sobraske (New York, USA)
~ ACTR Project: Michael Lahti (Maine, USA)
~ Searching for Heritage, Birth Family, and
Personal History Internationally: Amanda
Baden (New York, USA)
~ What Adult Adopted People Want the World
to Know (Part II): Internationally Adopted
Adults Speak Their Mind

T u e s d a y, F e b r u a r y 2 0
Keynotes:
~ Poetry & Thoughts: Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao
(Massachusetts, USA), Penny Callan Partridge
(Massachusetts, USA), and Fr. Tom Brosnan
(New York, USA)
~ What We Have Learned from The Girl Who
Went Away: The Hidden History of Women
Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the
Decades Before Roe v. Wade: Anne Fessler
(Rhode Island, USA)
~ Reflections of Birthmothers: Leslie Pate
McKinnon (Georgia, USA), Temple Odom
(Michigan, USA), and Libby Campbell
(Massachusetts, USA)
~ Birth Relative Initiated Contact: Kathy Mason
(Newcastle, UK)
~ Movie - Unlocking the Heart of Adoption: Sheila
Ganz (California, USA)
~ The Impact of Unresolved Infertility on
Adoptive Parenting: Phyllis Lowinger (New
York, USA)
~ Understanding Adopted Teens: Deb Riley
(Maryland, USA)
~ Post Adoption and Lifelong Issues for Troubled
Transplants: Dr. Frank Kunstal (Colorado, USA)
~ Adoption and Medical Professionals - What
Have we Learned From Developmental and
Behavioral Pediatrics: Drs. Lisa Albers Prock
and Wendy Schmidt (Massachusetts, USA)
~ Using Novels to Raise Consciousness About
Adoption: Maryann Novy (North Carolina, USA)
Workshops:
~ Search and Reunion Within Borders and Across
Oceans: Susan Vernon (Illinois, USA)
~ Foster Adoption and Infant Adoption – What
is the Same and What is Different: Gary Mallon
(New York, USA)
~ Loving Links - Lifelong Connections to First
Families in International Adoption: Leceta
Chisolm Guibalt and Kahleah Maria de Lourdes
Guibault (Quebec, Canada)
Keynotes and Workshops

W e d n e s d a y, F e b r u a r y 2 1, 2 0 0 7
Keynotes:
~ Poetry & Thoughts: Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao (Massachusetts, USA), Penny Callan Partridge
(Massachusetts, USA), and Fr. Tom Brosnan (New York, USA)
~ Six Characteristics that Define Collaboration: Susan Suen Keum Cox (Oregon, USA), Ada White
(Louisiana, USA), and Dixie Davis (Colorado, USA)
~ Growth of Intercountry Adoption in the 21st Century: Peter Selman (Newcastle, UK)
~ Exploring Transracial and International Adoption from Parent and Child Perspectives: Dr. Ellen
Pinderhughes (Massachusetts, USA) and a team of international researchers
~ Five Steps to Bringing Your Best to the Next Moment: Anne Jolles (Massachusetts, USA)
~ Adoption and Attachment Issues in Schools: Rena Phillips (Clackmannan, Scotland)
~ Film on Siblings and Discussion: Jean Strauss (Washington, USA)
Workshops:
~ A EuroAmerican on a Korean Tour at Thai Restaurant in China – Building Connections to their Child’s Ethnic
Community: Chris Winston (California, USA)
~ Creating Sustainable Post-Permanency Supports: Kim Stevens (Massachusetts, USA) and Patricia Fenton
(Ontario, Canada)
~ Adopted Children - How their Parents can Provide Effective Support: Suzanne Dosh (Colorado, USA)
~ Issues and Problems Post-Permanent Families Face: Diakon/Family Design Resources (Pennsylvania, USA)
~ Incredible Journey of Parenthood: Loren Buckner (Florida, USA)
~ Putting Adoption into Context with the Modern Family: Katherine Creedy (Vermont, USA)
~ Transracial Adoption - Adults, their Birth Parents, and Birth Siblings: Rita Simon (Washington DC, USA)
~ Sibling Kinnections - A Model Program: Melissa St. John and CFFC Staff (Massachusetts, USA)
~ Workshop follow-up from Exploring Transracial and International Adoption from Parent and Child Perspectives: Dr. Ellen Pinderhughes (Massachusetts, USA) and a team of international researchers

Advance Registration
Payment received before January 11, 2007: $375 USD/person
Late Registration
Payment received after January 11, 2007: $475 USD/person

CEUs:
Professional CEUs (MSW, LMFT, and LMHC) have been applied for, and are pending approval.
If approved, they will cost an additional $35 USD/person.

Etcetera:
~ Payment is non-refundable.
~ Lodging and travel costs are not included in the registration fee. (Your registration fee covers materials, all
sessions, and two lunch buffets.)
~ To access special conference room rates ($179 USD/night) at the Marlowe Hotel, Cambridge, MA, simply
mention CFFC and the ACTION conference (www.hotelmarlowe.com).
~ Presenters and schedule are subject to change without notification.
~ Check www.kinnect.org/training.html#ACTION for updates.

Advertising and Exhibiting
Conference program advertising and exhibit opportunities are available!
Your ad will appear in the final program, which is the only resource that attendees receive containing the full conference schedule. Needless to say, the program receives close examination from attendees. Exhibiting at the conference provides an excellent way to gain access to the attendees as it offers your organization face-to-face contact with the attendees themselves. For more information on these two excellent methods of getting your message to the adoption community, please contact katherinew@kinnect.org.

Collaboration
Center For Family Connections is seeking collaborators from various agencies/organizations from all countries to partner with us as we build an international network of people and professionals in the world of adoption.

Underwriter
$10,000 USD per agency/organization
Benefits include:
~ Agency/organization’s name and logo featured in conference materials sent all over the world to
advertise the conference
~ Agency/organization’s name and logo on the program cover. The program is given to all
participants in the conference and is the sole source for all conference information for attendees
~ A full-page ad in the conference program
~ Large-sized exhibit table on which to display materials, etc. about your agency/organization
~ Six conference registrations
Conference Associate
$3,000 USD per agency/organization
Benefits include:
~ Agency/organization’s name and logo featured in conference materials sent all over the world to
advertise the conference
~ A half-page ad in the conference program
~ Small-sized exhibit table on which to display materials, etc. about your agency/organization
~ Three conference registrations
Conference Supporter
$1,500 per agency/organization
Benefits include:
~ Agency/organization’s name and logo featured in conference materials sent all over the world to
advertise the conference
~ Quarter-page ad in the conference program
~ Two Conference registrations

Please contact katherinew@kinnect.org to collaborate
on this exciting international conference.