SYF WEBINAR: Religion, Adoption, and Christianity: Perspectives on the Intersections between religion and adoption in the United States

SYF WEBINAR: Religion, Adoption, and Christianity: Perspectives on the Intersections between religion and adoption in the United States

Date Oct 17, 2024
Time 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Cost $ 15.00
Register Register Today

Strengthening Your Family Webinar

Religion, Adoption, and Christianity: Perspectives on the Intersections between religion and adoption in the United States
Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024 | 1:00PM – 2:30PM EST 

Use coupon code RELIGION to receive free registration at checkout.

Register Today!

Extended Access Available Oct. 17 – Nov. 14, 2024

CEs for this webinar are also available, learn more.

 

Jockey Being Family Logo under Strengthening Your Family Webinar Logo Graphic Image of People Holding HandsIn conjunction with our adoption advocacy partner, The Jockey Being Family Foundation, C.A.S.E offers 600 FREE registrations to each Strengthening Your Family (SYF) Webinar with 10 webinars offered each year. These webinars focus on a variety of relevant topics for adoptive, foster and kinship parents as well as the professionals who serve them.

In the United States, Adoption and Christianity have been intrinsically linked since the rise in popularity in formal adoptions first took place. However, the impact of religion on adoption practice, and on the identities of adoptees, is infrequently discussed in public discourse. In this panel discussion, adult adoptees will talk about what religion has meant to them in their lives, and how it has impacted their personal and career paths as researchers, clinicians, adoption centered organization directors, missionaries, and poets. In addition, they will share how they feel religion, and specifically, Christianity, has shaped the way we view adoption in the United States.

Meet the Panel

Tony Hynes

Anthony HynesTony, a former foster youth and adoptee, was adopted by a same sex couple in the mid 1990’s. He writes about his experiences growing up as both an interracial adoptee and as a child growing up in a same sex headed household in his memoir “The Son With Two Moms.”

Today, Tony is an advocate for families like his, having served on the Board of Directors for organizations that serve to highlight adoptive families from diverse upbringings, and working with individual families in both pre and post adoptive placements. A thought leader in adoption, Tony has been invited to be a speaker at conferences on adoption and foster care throughout the nation, especially those involving interracial placements.

Tony completed his Masters thesis in Sociology on the psychology of children within the same sex headed household in 2013, and in the fall of 2017 was awarded a full scholarship to begin his PhD studies in Language, Literacy, and Culture at the Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County, where he has begun work on his dissertation, which focuses on social connectedness among interracial adoptees.

In his time as Training Specialist at C.A.S.E, Tony has designed innovative training curriculums that help families and professionals respond to evaluation and assessment tools that encapsulate holistic pictures of adoptees and foster youth.

 

Cam Lee Small

Cameron Lee Small

Cam’s work has been featured in National Council for Adoption, Christianity Today, University Minnesota School of Social Work, and Center for Adoption Support and Education. Paired with his clinical practice, Cam serves as a training facilitator for the cohort-based Permanency and Adoption Competency Certificate, a program to enhance adoption competencies for mental health and child welfare professionals across Minnesota.”

His personal experience as an international adoptee from Korea informs and inspires his current professional work. He formed his own private practice, Therapy Redeemed, in 2018 to raise awareness and respond to the mental health needs of adoptees and their families wherever they may be in their adoption journey. Cam’s worldwide vision for adoptee-centered advocacy is evident through his 1:1 counseling services, live workshops and support groups, Masterclass trainings, and his unique blend of content creation/collaboration across diverse media channels. His book The Adoptee’s Journey: From Loss and Trauma to Healing and Empowerment (forthcoming through InterVarsity Press June 2024) will address the intersection of adoption, mental health, and social justice. Cam’s personal insight stands honestly next to his professional acumen, making him a transformative force within the adoptee community and throughout the fields of advocacy and mental health.

Cam holds a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a licensed professional clinical counselor. Cam is PACC certified, and registered as an accredited service provider through TAC via Center for Adoption Support and Education. He is also a vetted clinician with Foster Adopt MN.

In addition, he is trained in biblical counseling, certified in non-violent crisis intervention and is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program. Cam’s mental health and education services are accessible 100% online and uniquely tailored for individuals and families on the adoption and permanency spectrum.

Astrid Castro

Astrid Castro (she/her/hers) is the founder and CEO of Adoption Mosaic. Adoption Mosaic is an adoptee-led, BIPOC woman-owned business that seeks to build an inviting adoption conscious community by providing innovative adoptee-centered programs and support. Astrid has a degree in sociology with an emphasis in adoption. Since 1992, she has traveled the country to present workshops on transracial parenting and talking with children about adoption, to lead adoptee youth groups, and various other workshops focusing on adoption. Astrid has also worked in both the private and public sectors of various adoption organizations. Astrid’s life-long interest in adoption is rooted in her own adoption at the age of four from Colombia (along with her older sister). She has been in reunion with her birth family in Colombia since December 2011.

 

Jade Henness
Jade Henness

Jade Henness is a co-author of the research study called, “Memorable messages regarding adoption and religion: Perspectives of adult adoptees,” which was recently published in the Journal for Social & Personal Relationships. For several years, Jade has presented on adoption and religion, combining her own research and personal experiences being adopted into a deeply religious family. In collaboration with other adoptees, Jade digitally published an Advent for Adoptees booklet. She has also worked as a Transracial Adoption Educator for a racial literacy non-profit and co-facilitator for Adoption Mosaic’s Transracial Parenting course.

 

Matthew Anthony

Matthew AnthonyHaving been displaced from their family as infants via closed private transnational adoption, the bodies of Matthew and his twin were purchased & trafficked into a sundown town. Matthew’s work is rooted in a love grief which persists, and is wholly interested and invested in co-creating Black (Adoptee) Futures where in we are not under siege by those who claim Whiteness. Matthew Anthony is a Afro-Surrealist theopoet, essayist & host of Little Did U Know: An Abolitionist Podcast that seeks to reveal the precarity inherent in transnational/racial adoption and dream of a new future by centering the voices of impacted people. Purchase his first collection of poetry You Can Not Burn The Sun