In this 90-minute AdoptUSKids webinar, presenters will share the importance of considering race and culture when making adoption permanency decisions. First, they will provide a brief overview of structural racism and its lingering effects on the child welfare system. Additionally, they will explore the impact of disproportionality and racial disparities on child welfare practice and how this has led to the overrepresentation of Black and Brown children/youth within the system.
At every decision-making point along the child welfare continuum, there are practices and policies that foster racial disparities. Race and culture are critical permanency considerations in adoptions, as they must be thoroughly considered at crucial decision-making points.
Guest speaker Robert “Tony” Parsons will share what it was like to be adopted transracially. Guest speakers Kendra Lowden and Ricardo Franco will share strategies for making adoption permanency decisions related to race and culture, specifically as it applies to Latino, Indigenous, and Black children in foster care.
Strategies from the workforce presenters
- Kimberly Bonham, LCSW, AdoptUSKids national child welfare consultant
- Faith Lee, MSHS, MA, AdoptUSKids national child welfare consultant
- Kendra Lowden, MA, Ghost Thunder Child Welfare Consulting consultant
- Ricardo L. Franco, LSW, DMin, Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange
Strategies from presenters with lived expertise
- Robert “Tony” Parsons, Center for States young adult consultant
Audience: This webinar is intended for professionals supporting children and youth and adoptive, kinship, and resource families.