The Hub (July 2024)
Director's Corner
Dear friends,
As summer unfolds, it's a season ripe with opportunities for relaxation, rejuvenation, and community connection. Take a moment amidst the warmth and sunshine to focus on self-care and embrace the simple joys of these longer days. Whether you're finding peace in nature's beauty or enjoying relaxed evenings with family and friends, let this season be a time for reflection and renewal.
Reflecting our commitment to connection, we are excited to invite you to two special summer events that we hope will strengthen our community bonds and deepen our understanding of each other's journeys. We are thrilled to partner with the following organizations to host these programs and help us reach a wider audience.
On July 9th at 7:00 PM, join us in person at the Cuyahoga County Public Library Parma Heights Branch for A Discussion with Marianne Novy, author of Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories, where Marianne will offer a unique perspective on adoption narratives and will also kick off our Monday Evening Speaker Series in September. Learn more here.
Additionally, mark your calendars for What's New in Adoption?—a panel discussion at the Maltz Museum featuring an adoptive parent, adult adoptee, and a birth parent. I am excited to serve as moderator on Wednesday, August 28th at 7:00 PM as we look at personal experiences, social justice, and adoption issues. Learn more here.
Have a wonderful summer and we look forward to seeing you soon!
In the spirit of community,
Betsie Norris
P.S. As always, I am interested in hearing your thoughts. Please reach out to me with your ideas and questions!
On the Blog
Family Resilience Fund: Supporting Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Caregivers
by Sita Ramaiya
Adoption Network Cleveland's Family Resilience Fund was created to support vulnerable families. The fund provides financial assistance to adoptive parents, foster parents, kinship caregivers, and parents who themselves were formerly in foster care during their youth. This fund was created to aid families in weathering periods of financial instability, allowing them to prioritize creating a loving, stable, and consistent home for the children in their care. Click to read more.
Special Topic General Discussion Meetings
by Adoption Network Cleveland
Join us for one or all of our Special Topic General Discussion Meetings. While our regular meeting discussions flow with the input of participants, once a month a meeting takes a unique, single, special topic for a deeper facilitated discussion. Upcoming sessions cover a variety of subjects like positive self-talk, emotional perspectives during the holidays, triggering events, and more. We're super excited to share these topics and create a space where everyone feels welcome. Click to read more.
General Discussion Meetings & Support Groups
Click here for our full calendar.
General Discussion Meetings and Support Groups are held on Zoom, except for the one that is specified In-Person. These gatherings provide a safe place where people can share their feelings and experiences, get support from their peers, and learn from others’ perspectives. The meetings have an open discussion format and are attended by anyone with a connection to adoption or foster care, including adult adoptees, birth parents, siblings, adoptive parents, those that have experienced foster or kinship care, or DNA discoveries such as misattributed parentage or donor conception. Professionals are also welcome to come and learn from the shared perspectives of the constellation members. General discussion meetings are held on all but the fifth Thursdays (which occurs in February, May, August, and October this year).
We are piloting an in-person General Discussion Meeting facilitated by Kim and Amy. This group meets at Adoption Network Cleveland's office on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. For the in-person meeting, please register 24-hours in advance.
July 2, 2024
8:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET
Special Topic: Fireworks Safety: Handle with Care
As the temperatures start to rise, friends and family gather together to celebrate holidays, birthdays, vacations, and reunions. One might want to bring fireworks to such festivities, but we all should recognize that these explosive materials should be handled with care. The same could be said about our DNA discovery results. We invite you to join our discussion as we share our journeys into possible volatile situations that might blow our expectations of what family means. Let's work through how we might handle these situations with care and understanding. Much like fireworks, DNA discovery results can be results can be dangerous, but when handled correctly... they may bring us joy and wonderment.
July 10, 2024
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM ET
Special Location: In-Person General Discussion Meeting at Barroco
Join us for an in-person General Discussion Meeting with a social twist at Barroco Larchmere, 12718 Larchmere Blvd. Cleveland, OH 44120. Look for us on the back patio, weather permitting! Drinks and appetizers are available at your own expense.
These gatherings provide a safe place where people can share their feelings and experiences, get support from their peers, and learn from others' perspectives. The meetings have an open discussion format and are attended by anyone with a connection to adoption or foster care, including adult adoptees, birth parents, siblings and adoptive parents, those that have experienced foster or kinship care, or DNA discoveries such as misattributed parentage or donor conception. Professionals are also welcome to come and learn from the shared perspectives of the constellation members.
Community Programs & Events
July 9, 2024
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
A Conversation with Marianne Novy
Join us at Cuyahoga County Public Library Parma Heights Branch for a conversation with Marianne Novy, author of Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories, and an upcoming Monday Evening Speaker Series presenter. Registration will take place through Cuyahoga County Public Library's website. Read more about Marianne Novy here.
Adoption Memoirs tells inside stories of adoption that popular media miss. Marianne Novy shows how adoption memoirs and films recount not only happy moments, but also the lasting pain of relinquishing a child, the racism and trauma that adoptees such as Jackie Kay and Jane Jeong Trenka experienced, and the unexpected complexities of child-rearing adoptive parents Emily Prager and Jesse Green encountered.
Novy considers 45 memoirs, mostly from the 21st century, by birth mothers, adoptees, and adoptive parents, about same-race and transracial adoption. These adoptees, she recounts, wanted to learn about their ancestry and appreciated adoptive parents who helped. Birth mother Amy Seek shows why open adoption is not simple, and many other memoirs tell stories that continue past reunion.
Adoption Memoirs will enlighten readers who lack experience with adoption and help those looking for a shared experience to also understand adoption from a different standpoint.
August 28, 2024
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM ET
What's New in Adoption?
Save the date! Join us at the Maltz Museum for an insightful presentation from adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and birth parents. Moderated by Betsie Norris, this session focuses on personal experiences, social justice, and adoption issues. The panel will include people on all sides of adoption, sharing their stories and experiences. Learn more here.
Family Programs & Events
July 11, 2024
6:00 - 7:30 PM ET
Family Ties & TeenTEA
New Summer Location! Bedford Heights Daycare. 21661 Libby Rd. Bedford Heights, OH.
Join us on the 2nd Thursday of each month for dinner followed by breakout sessions for parents, young children, and teens. Parents and caregivers will have an opportunity to discuss parenting topics in a supportive environment with others who understand.
Please note: The event will be held outdoors with a covered pavilion for dinner and the parent session. Be sure to dress for the weather!
Teens ages 11+ will meet separately after dinner for TeenTEA, our monthly teen group that provides a safe place for youth to share their truth, advocate for and support one another, and learn more about themselves. Children 10 and under will enjoy interactive outdoor play activities in one of the two large playscape areas, designed specifically for littles and elementary-age children.
July 15, 2024
6:30 - 8:00 PM ET
NAMI Family Support Group
In partnership with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), this Family Support Group is peer-led and intended for families and loved ones of children (18 and under) who are experiencing behavioral or mental health symptoms. This group is open to ALL regardless of connection to adoption.
This group encourages empathy, productive discussion, and a sense of community. You’ll benefit from others’ experiences, discover your inner strength, and empower yourself by sharing your own experiences in a non-judgmental space. Please join us virtually via Zoom on the 3rd Monday of each month from 6:30-8 PM.
Recommended by LinkedIn
July 18, 2024
7:00 - 8:00 PM ET
Transracial Adoptive Parent Support Group
Adoption Network Cleveland and Transracial Journeys have joined forces holding a series of co-hosted monthly support groups for parents who have adopted children outside of their own race. This group provides an intentionally structured and supportive space where parents can hear from leaders with lived expertise and share their experiences, challenges, and successes in raising transracially adopted persons. This support group meets virtually via Zoom. Click here to read more,
Upcoming Events - Save the Dates
August 17, 2024
2:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Annual Cookout & General Meeting
Everyone connected to Adoption Network Cleveland and their families are invited to join us at Edgewater Park for our Annual Cookout! This includes anyone who has participated in programs - past or present, volunteers, donors, board members, staff, community partners, and family members. There will be food, games for the kids, entertainment, music, community and fun! We will be providing drinks and main dishes. Please bring a side or dessert to share.
We will also be hosting a special, in-person General Discussion Meeting directly before the cookout from 12:30 - 2:00 PM at Edgewater Park. It is an opportunity for individuals in the Cleveland area to come together in person and participate in a meeting. Please note that this meeting is for adults only. Childcare will be provided during the meeting for children ages 2+. Please bring a lawn chair which you can use for the meeting. We ask that you register separately for the General Discussion Meeting.
Thank You! Our 2023-24 Monday Evening Speaker Series was a success. The series pauses for summer and will return in September. These programs are made possible through your donations, presenters volunteering their time, and the active participation of attendees.
Fall Monday Evening Speaker Series Presentations
Monday, September 9, 2024
8:00 - 9:00 PM ET
Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories with Marianne Novy
Marianne will discuss her book Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories (Temple University Press, 2024), which discusses 45 published books and two memoir-like films, by birth mothers, adoptees, and adoptive parents, about adoptions including same-race and transracial, domestic and international, with the largest number written in the 21st century. These memoirs depict happy moments but also the lasting pain of relinquishment, the racism and trauma that some adoptees experienced, and unexpected complexities of adoptive child-rearing for which parents were insufficiently prepared. A few adoptions portrayed were open from the start; most of the memoirs by adoptees and birth mothers and some by adoptive parents recount searches and the development of relationships after reunion. Read more about Marianne here.
Monday, September 23, 2024
8:00 - 9:00 PM ET
An Adoptee's Reflections on Working in Adoption and Foster Care with Sandi Caesar
Sandra "Sandi" Caesar is an adoptee who, for many years worked as an adoption professional. She was born Cristina Rodriguez in Panama to a 14-year-old girl who parented her for most of her 1st year. Ultimately, she was placed for adoption by her maternal grandmother without the knowledge or consent of her birth mother. Sandi was adopted by a Black US Air Force family stationed in Panama at the time. Sandi was naturalized as a US citizen at age 2 and moved to Dayton, Ohio at 3 years old. Sandi has been reunited with her birth mother and maternal family in Panama since 2004. Sandi holds a B.S. degree in Human Development from Howard University and an M.S.W. from Indiana University. Like many people in social work, Sandi has found parallels between the work she was drawn to and her personal life—finding answers to many of her own life questions while working with people who are often at their most vulnerable. Sandi is excited to share her own evolution of thought, insights, and experiences working in foster care and adoption as an adoptee with you. Read more about Sandi here.
Monday, October 7, 2024
8:00 - 9:00 PM ET
How to Bring Lightness to the Tough Stuff with Lauren LoGiudice
Comedian Lauren LoGiudice loves delving into difficult topics. A few years ago, she found out she was donor-conceived after a lifetime wondering why she was the odd-one-out in an Italian-American family, and has been creating comedy about it ever since. During the day she teaches comedy to non-comedians who are seeking to bring similar lightness to their story and in the process has discovered patterns and tools that can help you do the same. Read more about Lauren here.
Other Programs
Search & DNA Assistance
Adoption Network Cleveland is an experienced, trusted, reliable search resource for adult adoptees and family members, birth parents and siblings, those facing DNA discoveries, and others who are involved in or considering searching for relatives. Our mission goes beyond just finding names; it's about offering a full-circle support system, from advocacy to education, hands-on search assistance, and coaching throughout the process. While our location is Ohio, our knowledgeable staff can assist in searches without geographical limits. Opportunities for support are open to and accessible to all. If you would like assistance, please contact Karen Wyman for a personalized, professional analysis.
OhioKAN Kinship & Adoption Navigator
Adoption Network Cleveland is proud to partner with OhioKAN, an exciting program launched in 2023. OhioKAN is a statewide flexible and responsive kinship and adoption navigator program designed to assist children, caregivers, and families. With the support of dedicated Adoption Network Cleveland staff, OhioKAN's 100% free services help kinship and adoptive families in Cuyahoga, Medina, and Summit counties navigate and connect with all of the resources available locally and statewide.
Adoption Network Cleveland employs two OhioKAN Navigators, Alyssa Lombardo and Chandra Peoples, pictured above. They are both dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to connect caregivers with needed resources.
For more information and helpful resources, as well as a directory of other regional partners serving other areas of Ohio, please visit OhioKAN.ohio.gov. To connect with a navigator, call 1-844-OHIO-KAN.
Join Our Legacy Circle
Help us LIGHT UP and power our Network! With your support, Adoption Network Cleveland will provide healing and fill the service gaps in the adoption, foster, and kinship care community for decades to come. Making a planned gift via a bequest, charitable gift annuity, or other vehicle ensures a stable future for Adoption Network Cleveland's programs and services. By including Adoption Network Cleveland in your estate plans, you will become a member of our Legacy Circle.
To see a list of our Legacy Circle members or learn more about leaving a legacy, click here.
Philanthropy does not require great wealth. When you give to Adoption Network Cleveland, you may choose what to give, how to give, and how your gift will be used. A planned gift may be designated to a specific program, our endowment fund at the Cleveland Foundation, or general operations for the organization's most pressing need.
If you have already included Adoption Network Cleveland in your estate plans, please let us know so that we can add your name to the Legacy Circle. Our team works with you in partnership with our Cleveland Foundation philanthropic advisors. For more information, please contact Betsie Norris at (216) 482-2314 or betsie.norris@adoptionnetwork.org.
We Need Your Help!
A Creative Way to Help Support Adoption Network Cleveland
With our Creating Futures Benefit and Silent Auction quickly approaching on Saturday, September 14th we are working to put together an exciting silent auction. Do you have any resources or connections that could help? The auction will be both online and in-person at the event. All donors will be recognized. Please help us if you can! We need items in by early August and are looking for these types of things and more.
• Get-Aways — a weekend or longer at a vacation home, resort, hotel or B&B
• Behind the Scenes —tours or experiences not typically available to the public
• Tickets — theater, sporting events, fun things to do
• Certificates — massage, haircuts, restaurants
• Beautiful Items — jewelry, art, wearables
There are plenty of additional ways to contribute to this year's auction! You can make follow-up calls to businesses from the comfort of your own home, pay visits to local retailers or businesses to follow up on donation requests, or make a donation yourself, whether as an individual or on behalf of a business. Interested in volunteering or donating? Contact Kelsey.Reilly@adoptionnetwork.org.
Adoption Network Cleveland benefits immeasurable from volunteers' dedication, shared time, and expertise. If you hope to volunteer but do not see an opportunity that fits you, please reach out and let us know you're interested via Julius.Jackson@adoptionnetwork.org.
Download a printable program calendar HERE!
Early Next Month...
August 1 General Discussion Meeting facilitated by JJ & Rosemary
August 6 DNA Discovery Support Group facilitated by Becky & Oliver
August 7 Birth Mother Support Group facilitated by Nikki & Lindsey
August 8 General Discussion Meeting facilitated by Kim & Denice
Our website calendar has full listings and descriptions of upcoming events.
To learn more about becoming a corporate partner, please contact Betsie Norris, Executive Director at betsie.norris@adoptionnetwork.org.