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CHOICES Adoption & Counselling Services
CHOICES is committed to providing a professional comphrehensive, client centered adoption service which best meets the needs of everyone in the adoption constellation with paramount consideration given to the best interests of the child.
Transition
Once the family has completed a homestudy the transition process will begin. Both the family and the teen have to be in agreement about the teen's adoption plan.
The Transition Process
The Transition Process is the protocol used to move youth from their foster placements into adoptive homes. It is a protected period of time for a youth and a family to do the work each needs to do in order to enter an adoption that all of us – youth, family and workers – can trust will be permanent, unconditional and irrevocable.
Empowered Transition
The goal of an Empowered Transition is to protect – provide protection for the youth, protection for the family (and sometimes from the family) and protection for the workers. Empowered Transitions provide protection by correcting the imbalance of power intrinsic within any adult-youth relationship. The balancing of power occurs with the empowerment of the youth which, paradoxically, equally empowers the family. A youth needs to know they never have to say yes to a family. A youth can read the home study of the potential adoptive parents and look at pictures before they give their consent to any steps of the adoption process.
Maximizing Empowerment
Time: Commit to an open-ended time frame: no deadlines.
Control: The youth must make a conscious decision about whether to be adopted by the family, they are in control.
Structure: Establish clearly defined measures of progress in meeting the challenges of transition.
"Maybe"
The idea of "maybe" is the most important concept we can give to youth and to families. It is the truth: maybe the family will adopt the youth, or maybe they won't. "Maybe" is the foundation of empowerment. Youth referring to prospective adoptive parents as "maybe mom" or "maybe dad" will help protect youth as they experience less disappointment if the adoption placement does not go through.
(Summarized from Maris Blechner's power point presentation "Successful Adoption of Adolescents")
Consider long term, unconditional commitments to youth. Teens deserve to have lifetime connections with a family that can offer unconditional love and support.
Contacts
For more information about becoming an adoptive family through MCFD for a youth, contact Kirsten at CHOICES at 1-888-479-9811 or Brendan at MCFD Victoria at 250-952-4011 or if you are in Nanaimo and north or west island, please contact your local MCFD office.
This material was adapted from the National Adoption Information clearinghouse.