News

Coming 2/23/10: Transcultural Adoption Workshop - NEW VENUE!

January 11, 2010

Transcultural Adoption Workshop Offered by Celebrate Adoption on Tuesday, February 23, 2010.

Open to the public, session features transcultural adoption expert Norma Ginther, MSW, LISW

A two-hour workshop focused on the development of cultural and racial identity in transcultural/inter-racial adoptions will be held on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. Presented by Celebrate Adoption, a Cincinnati-area network of families touched by adoption, the session runs from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It will be located in the Ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn - Blue Ash, at 5300 Cornell Drive, Blue Ash, Ohio 45242. (PLEASE NOTE! THIS IS A CHANGE FROM THE PREVIOUS VENUE!)

For members of Celebrate Adoption, the workshop is free. It is also open to the public for a $5.00 fee. Advance registration is required. To register, please call please call Nada Hammann, Event Chair at 513-373-1324 or email rjcaterer@fuse.net.

The workshop, entitled "The Seven Parenting Tasks in Transcultural Adoption," features transcultural adoption expert Norma Ginther, MSW, LISW of NMG Consulting. Ms. Ginther will discuss the development of cultural and racial identity while living as a child or youth adopted by parents of a different ethnicity. Parents will learn how to enhance cultural connectedness and how to talk frankly with their children about cultural issues.

Attendees will leave the session better-prepared to handle some of the most common transcultural adoption challenges, including how to:'

• Acknowledge prejudice and discrimination,
• Explain maltreatment of different ethnic groups,
• Develop and provide a repertoire of age-appropriate responses,
• Advocate on behalf of your child,
• Prepare your child for discrimination, and
• Teach the child the differences between responsibility to and for their group.

"Research released from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (www.adoptioninstitute.org) in November 2009 clearly shows the importance of taking a proactive approach in continually discussing race, culture and identity in families who have chosen transcultural adoption," says Nada Hammann, Celebrate Adoption's chairperson for this event. "Norma's presentation will give parents the tools they need to help their children embrace the differences and rise above the challenges as they forge their unique identity."

About the speaker
Ms. Ginther has 42 years of child welfare practice and training experience. She has worked in both public and private child welfare agencies as a caseworker, a foster care specialist, a physical abuse assessment and treatment specialist, and in adolescent services. A master trainer and mentor for the Institute of Human Services, Ms. Ginther has extensively studied topics of culture and diversity, as well as a myriad of other adoption issues. The Ginther family has fostered 46 adolescents and adopted transculturally, transracially and internationally.