Adopt Salon Support Group Zoom Facilitator:
We are seeking an adoption professional to facilitate the Adopt Salon 6 times a year from 2022-2023, on the first Wednesday of the month for April, May, July, August, October, and November. Paid and trained position.
***The ideal candidate will possess a Current California LCSW/LPCC/LMFT license in good standing and experience working with adoptees, foster youth alumni, foster, adoptive, kinship, and birth families.
Goals of Adopt Salon:
#1: Bring everyone together- first mothers, first fathers, foster youth alumni, foster parents, kinship caregivers, legal guardians, adult adoptees, adoptive parents, siblings, relatives, and significant others in one Zoom room.
#2: Provide a safe space to share each other’s story’s in an emotionally stable environment, with a non-biased facilitator, who could hold each different voice and point of view with respect and regard. Which was me, and could be any experienced child welfare professional who holds high regard for every star in the birth, foster, adoption constellation and who wants to help navigate the child welfare system.
#3: Hold safe space and maintain healthy boundaries in the group. “We are here to share stories, thoughts, feelings, and ideas, receive psycho-education, process grief, and loss, build strong bonds and connections. There is no criticizing, judgment, or unsolicited advice given unless requested, when sharing all shares must be expressed in an “I message.” If you have a question, that person has a right to respond or say “no thank you. You can also be an OWL – observe, watch, and listen so that your feelings can inform a proactive response, rather than a reactive response. And most importantly, understand there are many voices in child welfare, and many different points of view because…”
“If you look at a tree from one angle, that’s the only angle you are going to get!”
How the group works:
We start by going around the group, each person states their name, their connection to adoption or foster care, say if they have any questions, pressing issues, or shares, so the facilitator can return back to them to open up a group discussion. Common themes that come up are the struggles with parenting a child with early childhood trauma, helping them change the paradigm from “what’s wrong with him to what happened to him?”, understanding grief and loss for the adoptee and foster youth and first-birth mother or father, shifting the way first-birth mothers and fathers are perceived as people with their “own unmet mental health needs”, and having the courage to acknowledge that we can and are grieving these losses together.
And lastly, acknowledging this commonality will help us see the connection of what’s truly “in the best interest for the child”. There are stories shared about mothers who were forced to surrender their children due to no fault of their own, and their families did not support them in keeping their child. There are stories of mothers, who genuinely wanted their children, who were not ready to be mothers, were also products of the foster care system and yet still wanted to be a part of their children’s lives but not knowing how. Then we discuss open adoption and how that works. And teaching foster parents, how to convey their child’s stories to them in an “age-appropriate way” and helping families who have not, still to this day, told their children they were adopted as infants. There are stories of foster youth alumni who ran away from home due to the abuse they endured and needed their foster families to understand how badly they were hurting and what they truly needed during those times.
Where we are today: The support group is held four times a year, on the first Wednesday of March, June, September, and December from 7-9 pm on ZOOM led by Jeanette Yoffe. She is wanting to run other groups for teens, social workers and therapists, and will no longer be able to lead this group.
Paid position per group. All those interested please email your cover letter and resume for this position to info@celiacenter.org
GRANT WRITER:
We are seeking a grant writer to assist with the California Arts Council grants and support for future Celia Center Arts Festivals. This is a paid position.
Please email your cover letter and resume for this position to info@celiacenter.org
