- Scholarships
Also-Known-As: Adoptee Excellence Scholarship
The Also-Known-As Adoptee Excellence Scholarship known as the All Star Scholarship is open to graduating or current undergraduate international adoptees “who demonstrate the attributes of leadership, drive, integrity, and civic engagement. We seek candidates who have used their adoption story and formative youth experiences to lead, serve, and pursue a life of purpose and significance, both individually and for their communities.”
- Scholarships
Asian Pacific Fund: Apply for Scholarships
The Asian Pacific Fund offers a wide range of scholarships with varying recipient amounts and qualifications.
- Adoptee Groups
ICAV Post Adoption Services
List of intercountry and transracial, adoptee-led, post-adoption services located in the USA. Has search reunion services, counseling therapy services, and more.
- Adoptee Groups
Child Welfare Information Gateway: “Adoption”
Resources on all aspects of domestic and intercountry adoption, with a focus on adoption from the U.S. foster care system. Includes information for adoption professionals, adopted adults, expectant parents considering adoption, birth parents and relatives, and prospective and adoptive parents on a broad range of adoption topics.
- Community Connection
Gladney Center for Adoption: Adoption Forums
Adoption Forum is an online community forum containing many different threads relating to various aspects of adoptions. Larger categories include adoptive parents, foster care, special needs, adult adoptees, and more. Each category contains multiple subcategories where people can interact with each other and ask/answer questions.
- Community Connection
Adoption Network: “How to Find Support Groups for Adoptive Parents”
This article explains the benefits of parent support groups for parents of adoptees. It includes a section on single parents as well as on couples, and provides a few starting links for those looking.
- Media
Adopted (2008)
Adopted tells the story of two adoptees and their families. One family is a couple preparing for the adoption of a baby girl. The other, a 32 year old adoptee from Korea that has struggled to speak with her adoptive parents her whole life about adoption. The two stories are at opposite ends of the adoption process, but both stories converge to show that love alone is not enough to make a family work.
- Media
The Drop Box (2015)
Pastor Lee Jong Rak is a pastor in South Korea. His ‘drop box’ is a space where children can be placed if the parent decides to give up their child. Throughout the film, Pastor Lee emphasizes the special value of each child’s life, and how God has a plan for the little ones. The documentary focuses on his work with adoption and the babies placed inside his ‘drop box’.
- Trainings
Adoption Support Alliance
The Adoption Support Alliance offers an Adoption 101 course designed for anyone considering growing their family through adoption. The class discusses different aspects surrounding adoption, including the logistics of both domestic and international adoption, how to deal with grief and trauma, birth family relationships, and more. The ASA also offers classes on ‘Race, Culture & Adoption’ and ‘Adoption Training for Church Communities.’
- Trainings
Child Welfare Information Gateway: “Preadoption Training”
“Different types of adoption training are available to help prospective and adoptive parents learn more about the different aspects of adoption. The Child Welfare Information Gateway has compiled a list of different trainings that may be required and are useful for parents looking to understand more about their child and their development.
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- Trainings
Holt International: “Parenting Adoptees”
Holt International is a Christian organization that offers programs including Post-Adoption Coaching & Education (PACE) and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). Both programs help parents to work with their children. Holt also provides resources on racial and adoptee identity, birth parents, and privilege and international adoption. All of these sections have links and videos designed to help parents understand their child.
America World Adoption: “Adoption Training”
America World Adoption is a Christian adoption agency offering ‘Anchored in Hope: Strengthening Adoptive Families’ which is designed to help families prepare for the placement of a child and to equip them to meet the unique needs of their child in a 10 hour curriculum. They also offer courses for preparing for after adoption with shorter training around 1 ½ hours. AWAA’s other resources include webinars and individual appointments.
- Trainings
Adoption Training Online
From the Children’s Aid Society of Alabama, several paid trainings are offered. There are Hague approved bundles. Trainings are various- spanning from domestic adoption, medical courses, and mental health
- Trainings
Gladney Center for Adoption: “Why Are Foster Care and Adoption Training Required?”
This article explains why foster care and adoption training is required. It discusses pre-service training, foster parent in-service training, post-adoption training, kinship-specific training, and more. The author also provides general advice about learning through parenting experience and how it is a journey.
- Media
Unlocking the Heart of Adoption (2002)
This is an hour-long documentary which chronicles the filmmaker’s journey as a birthmother and reveal the personal storeis of adoptees, birthparents, and adoptive parents. A wide variety of perspectives on adoption are explored, including the connections between birth families and adoptive families.
- Media
Somewhere Between (2011)
A documentary on four different teenage girls adopted from China under the One Child Policy who are currently living in the United States. The film explores their struggles with racism, identity formation, belonging, and race and gender.
- Mental Health
Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM)
BEAM is a national training, movement building, and grant making institution that is dedicated to the healing, wellness, and liberation of Black and marginalized communities.
- Mental Health
Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation
The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation was founded by actress Taraji P. Henson to offer “Black communities resources, connections and support needed to help break the silence and stigma around mental health.” Services include a directory of mental health providers and programs serving the African-American community, African American Cultural Competency training, a mental health scholarship fund, and more.
- Mental Health
InnoPsych
InnoPsych is dedicated to bringing “healing to communities of color by changing the face and feel of therapy.” Their goal is to make therapists of color more accessible. The search directory tool allows users to filter by location, specialty, service type, ethnicity, and insurance type.
- Mental Health
Therapy for Black Girls
Therapy for Black Girls is “an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls.” The site includes a search directory tool where users are able to search for therapists with filters including location, issue, and whether or not virtual therapy is provided. It also offers podcasts, a blog, and the option to join the site’s community.
- Mental Health
Mental Health America: “Black and African American Communities and Mental Health”
Mental Health America is a resource “driven by its commitment to promote mental health as a critical part of overall wellness, including prevention services for all.” The site includes statistics and examples on what Black and African American people face in regards to mental health.
- Mental Health
No Hands But Ours: “Preparing for Adoption: A Family Therapist’s Perspective”
An article on preparing for adoption by Ashley Yeager, a family therapist and Trust-Based Relational Intervention Practitioner. She incorporates a spiritual feel, and explains different steps for prospective adoptive parents to take.
- Media
Found (2021)
The story of three adopted Chinese-American teenage girls who discover they’re blood-related cousins on 23andMe. Their online meeting inspires the young women to confront the burning questions they have about their lost history and travel back to China.
- Media
Stuck (2013)
A documentary that follows four children from three different countries on their individual voyages from orphanages to their new homes with families in the United States. It explores the corruption and greed behind the adoption process as parents try to adopt kids but are blocked by outside efforts.
- Media
Approved for Adoption (2012)
An animated film about a young Korean boy joining a Belgium family and his return to his birth country. The story follows him over the course of his life, and the times when his adoption influenced whether or not he felt accepted.
- Adoptee Groups
Angela Tucker
Angela Tucker is an author, a podcaster, a film producer and has gained a reputation for being a national thought leader on the intersectional topics of race, class, and identity. She was adopted from foster care to a white family, and grew up in a city that was predominantly white. She has 15+ years of working in social welfare organizations, has consulted with NBC’s This Is Us, and supported the lead actor of Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill. Her first book is scheduled for publication in the spring of 2023 (Beacon Press).
- Birth Family Search
Searching for Go-Hyang (1998)
This film is about twin sisters who are adopted into the US but return back to Korea 14 years later in hopes of exploring and reconnecting with their homeland and roots. This story addresses issues of national identity and cross cultural adoption.
- Birth Family Search
Off and Running (2009)
Avery, an African-American adoptee and track star with white Jewish lesbians for parents and two other adopted siblings begins to become more curious about her roots. Her curiosity about her African-American heritage grows and she decides to contact her birth mother. Avery’s life turns into a crisis and struggles over her “true” identity, her isolation from Black culture, and the circumstances of her adoption.
- Mental Health
Find Black Therapist
“This search engine searches for Black therapists throughout the United States. It is filterable by state, city, issues, telehealth, and includes a filter for adoption as well. However, their selection for adoptees is more limited.
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- Mental Health
African Diaspora Mental Health Association (ADMH)
The African Diaspora Mental Health Association is an outpatient mental health clinic, registered and licensed in the state of Massachusetts. They offer many different mental health services including individual therapy, family therapy, bilingual services, couples therapy, and more. Resources for children, adults, and seniors can all be found here.
- Mental Health
Safe Space Africa
Mental health educational products and therapy services for Africans on the continent and diaspora.
- Mental Health
Black Mental Wellness
The mission of Black Mental Wellness, Corp. is to provide access to evidence-based information and resources about mental health and behavioral health topics from a Black perspective, to highlight and increase the diversity of mental health professionals, and to decrease the mental health stigma in the Black community. Their services include culturally inclusive mental health and wellness training, workshops specific to youth and children, and webinars on multiple different topics.
- Race Education
The Guardian: “Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race”
“A first person account by British journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge on the ways structural racism prevails today but how some white people refuse to see it. She explains why she will no longer be discussing this with people who won’t listen. The author talks about how people must first acknowledge that they benefit from structural racism and understand that color blindness is not the solution.”
- Race Education
The Guardian: “Confronting racism is not about the needs and feelings of white people”
“Short first person account by Ijeoma Oluo on how the discussion of racism needs to center around the voices of those who are marginalized.
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Time: “The Realities of Raising a Kid of a Different Race”
“An article written by an adoptive mother on what every parent should know about transracial adoptions. This article is applicable to adoptees but centers around the Black adoptee experience growing up in a white household.”
- Adoptee Groups
Adoptees for Justice
“Adoptees For Justice is an intercountry adoptee-led organization whose mission is to educate, empower, and organize transracial and transnational adoptee communities to achieve just and humane adoption, immigration, and restorative justice systems. We envision a world where every person thrives in a safe and supportive environment in which communities of color, immigrants, and adoptees are liberated from all forces of injustice, with full citizenship for all. Our first project is to educate, organize and advocate for an Adoptee Citizenship Act that is inclusive of all adoptees.”
- Birth Family Search
Closure (2013)
A trans-racial adoptee finds her birth mother, and meets the rest of her family who did not know she existed, including her birth father. This documentary explores themes such as identity, the complexities of trans-racial adoption, and closure.
- Birth Family Search
Lion (2016)
The extraordinary birth search family based on a true story. When a little boy from India gets lost on a train and taken thousands of miles away from home gets adopted by an Australian couple. With his unforgettable memories, his determination, and the online technology Google Earth, 25 years later Saroo sets out to find his first home.
- Race Education
The Conversation: “Explainer: what is casual racism?”
“An explanation of everyday and more subtle forms of racism and the microaggressions that racial minorities face.”
- Race Education
NPR: “Microaggressions are a big deal: How to talk them out and when to walk away”
“Podcast and interview with Kevin Nadal on microaggressions and how their impact is not “micro.”” Nadal also has his own website with books on microaggressions and other subjects.”
- Race Education
NPR: “Microaggressions: Be Careful What You Say”
“An 8 minute NPR podcast that explains microagressions and how sometimes “”because people are good, moral – experience themselves as good, moral, decent individuals, they find it very difficult to accept the fact that they have been engaged in a discriminatory action, or may harbor racial biases that they have. And it violates, in some sense, their sense of being a good person.””
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- Race Education
NPR: “How ‘Ching Chong’ Became The Go-To Slur For Mocking East Asians”
A short article on the history and prevalence of a racist slur used against Asian people.
- Race Education
MTV Impact: “If Microaggressions Happened to White People”
A 3 minute YouTube video highlighting the microaggressions people of color deal with everyday.
- Race Education
Vice: “Why People Still Laugh at Asian Accents: An Investigation”
“An explanation of the racism involved when people mock Asian accents, and the way Asian accents are still laughed at today.”
- Race Education
NPR: “Want to have better conversations about racism with your parents? Here’s how”
“An NPR article from the perspective of a biracial person with a white mother and father from West Africa.
It explains how to have more complex, understanding discussions about racism with your parents.”
- Race Education
NMAAHC: “Being Antiracist”
This article explains the ways in which racism exists (individual, interpersonal, institutional, etc.). It also provides simple exercises for people to engage with and examine their own perspective.
- Race Education
Dear Asian Youth: “Mocking an Asian Accent is Never Funny”
“First person piece on why mocking an Asian accent is never funny from the website DearAsianYouth.
This article talks about how mocking accents contributes to racism.”
- Race Education
Vox: “What exactly is a microaggression?”
“This article describes microaggressions and how they go beyond everyday slights or remarks, as well as the negative impact they have.”
- Media
White Sugar Brown Sugar
A blog by a Christian mom about her adopted children. Although she doesn’t disclose names or faces out of respect, she describes her adoptions as domestic, transracial, and open
- Adoptee Groups
Adoptee Voices Rising
“Adoptee Voices Rising is an adoptee-led, social justice group that advocates for the adoptee community through political engagement and legislation.”
- Race Education
The Seattle Times: “Adoption across races: ‘I know my parents love me, but they don’t love my people’”
“Adoptee Angela Tucker discusses how she felt like a racial impostor growing up. She explains that she may have looked Black, but didn’t feel that way.”
- Trainings
NCFA Intercountry Adoption Journey
“Held through the National Council for Adoption, this 10-hour course fulfills the training requirements of countries that are party to the Hague Adoption Convention and provides a solid foundation for all prospective parents pursuing intercountry adoption.”
- Media
NCFA: “Positive Practices in Transracial Adoption Parenting”
“In the article, an adoptee suggests parents bring up the topic of adoption first and work with their children to understand their feelings.”
- Adoptee Groups
Adoption Mosaic
“Adoption Mosaic’s vision is to build bridges with adoption communities for forward-thinking dialogue on adoption-related topics while offering support and education to those who are learning what it means to be a part of the adoption constellation.
The Adoption Mosaic mission is to connect, honor, and serve the adoption constellation through innovation in education, practices, and support services.”
- Media
American Adoptions NEWS: “25 Helpful Resources for Transracial Adoptive Families”
A resource page with links to transracial adoption blogs and websites, books, FB groups, and more.
- Media
NPR: “White Kid, Black Family: Transracial Adoption”
“A Black father speaks about his and his family’s experience raising a white girl and transracial adoption.”
- Media
Rudd Adoption Research Program UMASS Amherst: “Promoting Adoptees’ Well-Being in Transracial Adoptive Families”
“An article with parenting suggestions designed to support and uplift transracially adopted children. It also contains a useful bibliography which features even more resources.”
- Race Education
NCFA: “The Adoptive Parent’s Responsibility when Parenting a Child of a Different Race”
“An article by the National Council for Adoption on the different ways adoptive parents can and need to support their children. This specifically discusses the issues, privileges, and challenges of adopting a child of a different race.
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- Race Education
Adoptive Families: “How to Be an Anti-Racist Adoptive Parent”
An article on how to actively challenge racism and discuss privilege, especially in the context of a multiracial family.
- Racial Identity
NBC News: “All-American, with one foot in China”
A short article perspective on the need for adoptive parents to educate their Chinese adopted daughters about racism, identity, and the reality of life in America.
- Media
“Raising Our Multiracial Family”
“A Black woman shares her story of raising her family of 4 children including one white, adopted son. Insta- @raisingculturesfamily , tiktok- @raisingcultures”
- Media
NPR: “A Mother Reflects On Privilege, Adoption And Parenting ‘Without Perfection'”
“NPR 37 minute listen as a white mom reflects on her life raising two adopted Black children and two biological white children, and how she became aware of her own white privilege. She also has a blog called Rage Against the Minivan.”
- Race Education
NACAC: “Transracial Adoption: Love is Just the Beginning”
“A first person perspective by Deb Reisner (North American Council on Adoptable Children member), mother to a family with a blend of African American, Native American, Latino, and European American races and cultures. She details the importance of listening to her children about their experiences with racism and family methods of externalizing racism.”
- Media
American Adoptions: “4 Unique Challenges Faced By Transracial Adoptees”
“An article on American Adoptions that examines 4 challenges that many adoptees will have to face (also included in race education).”
- Racial Identity
Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition New York: “Racism and Microaggressions in Transracial Adoption”
“This page discusses racism and microaggressions that can be found in transracial adoption. It is part of a broader resource page on the above topic located on the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of NY website.
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- Racial Identity
Angela Tucker: The Adopted Life
A workshop led by Angela Tucker, a transracial adoptee. Her website describes the workshop as the following: Adoptees of color who are parented by white people have different needs than their non-adoptive counterparts and are well-served by thoughtful attention to the intersectionality of race, culture and identity by all in their life – not just their parents. This workshop is fully customized and invites all of the people in that child’s life to come together for a 2-hour virtual workshop, facilitated by Angela. Families leave with a deeper understanding of how transracial adoptees grow through the development stages of racial awareness to racial identity, and practical skills for how to handle insensitive or racist remarks.
- Racial Identity
Children’s Bureau: “Parenting in Racially and Culturally Diverse Adoptive Families”
A PDF created by the Children’s Bureau and Child Welfare Information Gateway that explains relevant things adoptive parents should know, especially concerning transracial or culturally diverse adoptions.
- Racial Identity
Child Welfare Information Gateway: “Adoption by Family Type: Racially and Culturally Diverse Families”
“Landing page by Child Welfare Information Gateway with links to resources for adoptive parents looking for information on racially and culturally diverse adoptions.
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- Media
Time: “My White Adoptive Parents Struggled to See Me as Korean. Would They Have Understood My Anger at the Rise in Anti-Asian Violence?”
An article in Time magazine about a Korean American adoptee’s thoughts on the title of “adoptee” and the racial dynamics in transracial adoptions.
- Media
Los Angeles Times: “‘I’m not allowed to feel those things’: How adoptees experience anti-Asian hate”
A New York Times article on the complex ways Asian adoptees experience anti-Asian hate and racism as a result of their unique identity. Many adoptees in the article speak of how they felt tied to both cultures and/or neither.
- Media
NPR: “‘Am I Asian Enough?’ Adoptees Struggle To Make Sense Of Spike In Anti-Asian Violence”
In this NPR article, adoptee voices take center, and different adoptees explain their complex feelings regarding anti-Asian violence and the different ways in which they are affected.
- Media
Rhonda M. Roorda, MA
“Roordaa identifies as a transracial adoptee, and was adopted out of the New York system into a white American family. She has published multiple books on the Black American experience as an adoptee and is an international speaker that can be booked to speak.
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- Media
NPR: “Growing Up ‘White,’ Transracial Adoptee Learned To Be Black”
7 min listen and article on NPR, a Black, transracial adoptee reflects on his identity and experiences growing in life with white parents and white privilege.
- Media
BuzzFeed News: “What A Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew”
An essay from the first person perspective of a Black transracial adoptee. The author discusses the racial dynamics in a family with transracial adoption.
- Media
Psychology Today: “Adult Adoptee Voices Are Changing Adoption Narrative”
“The article is written by a Korean transracial adoptee speaking about the Side x Side project where adoptees discuss their lives, relationships, and origins. It summarizes the project and talks about how even if adoptive parents think their relationship is great, it may be prudent to reexamine and ask honestly how their children are feeling
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- Media
Two Adoptees Uncensored: “Listening to Adoptees”
“Christopher, identifies as a queer transracial adoptee born in Vietnam and was adopted at 1 year old. He reflects on growing up in a white family, and predominantly white community.
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- Racial Identity
NPR: “The Parenting Dilemmas Of Transracial Adoption”
“This article touches on color blind parenting and how parents must acknowledge we don’t live in a colorblind society. It is a 37 minute listen on NPR and a short summary is provided.
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- Media
NPR: “Adoptees express their fear, anger and insight on race during social unrest”
A news article that spotlights adoptees of all backgrounds and adopted families, as they explain how their identity has been shaped by social unrest and the ways it has impacted their family dynamic.
- Media
Diary of a Not-So-Angry Asian Adoptee
“Christina Romo identifies herself as a Korean adoptee, mom, wife, and advocate. She details her life and internal thoughts on adoption, but also provides the perspective of a parent learning how to parent her biracial children.
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- Media
The New York Times: “IDENTITY: When Parents Adopt a Child and a Whole Other Culture”
A New York Times article on how adoptee identity is a complex issue that is unique for each adoptee. It discusses how parents are not only adopting a child, but also their child’s culture.
- Media
The Guardian: “Stories of transracial adoptees must be heard – even uncomfortable ones”
Korean-American adoptee Nicole Chung touches on the way adoptees are expected to fit into the framework of white supremacy and which emotions are considered acceptable for adoptees to have. She discusses her own experience with the phrase “a good adoptee.”
- Mental Health
Meggin Nam Holtz (LMSW)
Meggin Holtz received her MSW with a focus on child and adolescent trauma in the clinical setting. She provides therapy to youth, adolescents, families, and adults utilizing a strengths-based, trauma-informed, attachment, culturally and racially sensitive, and adoption-informed lens.
- Adoptee Groups
Holt International Camp
Holt Adoptee Camp maintains a focus on fun and community, just like any other summer camp. What makes this camp special is that we have built in a curriculum for adoptees, by adoptees, that provides a space for adoptees to discuss, share and build identity among their peers. Everything at camp has been created and implemented by adult adoptee staff — making this program one of a kind.
- Adoptee Groups
Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families
Chinese Heritage Camp connects adoptive families with the cultural community, adoption experts, and families with shared experiences.
- Mental Health
Amanda Baden, PH.D.
Amanda Baden is am a Licensed Psychologist in New York City with a small practice in Manhattan. She specializes in work with those impacted by adoption but I also work with issues related to racial, cultural, and identity concerns.
