Adoption Program
Education and Resources
Private & International Adoption Educational Seminar
Supplementary training – beyond PRIDE
LIVE stream online – Saturday, April 22nd, 2023
The goal of this interactive educational seminar is to enrich the learning experience for those who completed the OACAS online PRIDE training. The supplementary training will expand your knowledge in the areas of private and international adoption. Amazing guest speakers, including adult adoptees, adoptive parents, a birth mother, etc. Topics include: adjustments of children: food, language, sleeping, other children in the home/in your lives, your extended family, pets; Understanding open adoption relationships (or considerations if no contact); issues related to mixed racial adoptions; how to talk to your child about adoption; positive adoption language; how to answer questions from family and friends. 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. $125/person.
Contact Sofie Stergianis,
416 825-0093
An Education Seminar for Extended Family and Friends
Date: Saturday, May 4, 2024 – Live Stream Online
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Registration Fee: $50 per person (inquire about group discounts)
Detailed zoom instructions will be provided, as well as a short tutorial for those who are not familiar with using zoom
For Your:
Parents & In-laws
Siblings
Older Children
Other Family Members
Nannies
Friends
Finally – a seminar to help family and friends understand adoption. This seminar will be helpful during the adoption process, or after the adoption has been completed. The seminar will help involve family and friends, and will provide education about the different aspects of adoption:
• Positive adoption language
• How to answer questions – Privacy versus secrecy
• Adjustments of internationally adopted & older children
• Understanding open adoption relationships
• Losses in adoption for everyone in the adoption “constellation”
• Growing up adopted – presentation by an adult adoptee
• How family and friends can be supportive – (and what not to do)
For more information and to register, contact Sofie Stergianis, adoption@rogers.com 416-483-0003
Adoptive Family Camp
Adoptive Family Camp is hosted at Camp Hermosa in Goderich on Lake Huron. During the week up to 8 families with adopted children gather to learn from each other and create a safe environment where their kids can enjoy nature and the outdoors. The daytime is structured to encourage attachment between parents and kids with brief times apart so that the parents can participate in additional training. This year the training will be focused on building attachment and connection with our children through one-on-one time, knowing when and how to implement consequences, and maintaining healthy family lives in the face of difficulty. The youth attending the camp range in age from 1-14.
The parent sessions are scheduled for 1.5-2 hours on 3 of the camp days. Luke will lead from his own personal experience of raising two adoptive sons as well as based on this training from delivering PRIDE as a resource parent for 14 years plus more recently his knowledge of Choice Theory Parenting which is an approach for parents who are raising kids who are not interested in being parented.
Details on Kid Sessions – Lead by Jaya
The kids participate in separate sessions Monday to Friday for 1.5-2 hours. We take into account the impact of trauma on kids and select activities accordingly. For example, we don’t do competitive games, try to ensure there is a low supervisor to youth ratio and provide the opportunity to kids to select an activity from a variety. This year we are using the iLead material focused on values that support development of leadership skills.
Adoption: What To Do While You Wait
Join experienced child and family therapist, and (adoptive) mom-in-the-trenches, Karen Peters in this 10-part course. Designed for couples in the process of adoption, this course invites partners to strengthen their connection and develop a relationship game plan to survive the transition to parenthood with their relationship intact. Enjoy an engaging presentation style courtesy of an experienced adoptive parent that will equip you with the tools to create a legacy of care and connection for the family you are building. Make use of the time while you are waiting for the call to set your family up for their very best success.
Code: BEGINNINGSFS gives 20% off the cost of the program
Let’s Talk Infertility
What should you say to someone struggling with infertility?
What’s the best way to support them? To let them know you care without overstepping?
To sympathize while encouraging hope? It isn’t always easy or obvious, especially since infertility isn’t something that’s often talked about. This video, created in collaboration with a panel of individuals struggling with infertility themselves and the University of Regina, aims to shed light on how the loved ones of those struggling with infertility can best provide support and comfort.
Adoption Matters’ Online Education
Online Education Series
Looking to build you knowledge with tools, tips and strategies to help you in your adoption and parenting journey?
Adoption Matters’ Online Education is an exciting, new way of learning more about adoption and permanency journeys and how best to support children, youth, adults and families on them.
Adopt 4 Life
Adopt4Life–Ontario’s Association for kin, customary care, and adoptive parents and caregivers, is a community of people with lived experience that strengthens and empowers parents and caregivers to achieve permanency for children so that they reach their full potential. We believe all adoptive, kinship and customary care parents and caregivers have a right to advocacy, support and guidance throughout their lifelong journey.
Adoption Council of Ontario
The Adoption Council of Ontario provides specialized training and education for all those touched by adoption and permanency journeys, and the professionals who support them. There is a framework for understanding adoption and permanency journeys and all those living these journeys can benefit from this knowledge.
Contact Beginnings
Have Questions?
FAQs
Beginnings views education as the cornerstone for building strong families. Since many of the families who come to Beginnings are created through adoption, embryo donation and single parenting, there is a need to provide support and education to families who have special needs. It is one thing to adopt, donate or receive embryos, or parent on your own, but all parties need to find ways to help their children growing up in unique situations. Beginnings programs offer insight and understanding in how to meet their childrens’needs.
We offer the following programs:
- Parenting and family support programs
- Prenatal support
- Life skills
- Baby Smarts – Healthy Relationship Program
Birth parents and embryo donor parents can attend all programs at no cost to themselves. Adoptive parents and embryo recipients can attend for a fee for service.
Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE) is a comprehensive 27 hour training program that is now recognized as essential preparation for all prospective adoptive and foster parents. It is mandatory in the province of Ontario. It is completed in tandem with the Home Study process before adoptive applicants can adopt. It is offered at various times and locations in Ontario.