Post-Adoption Centre
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£55,325
Funding round
The Post-Adoption Centre offers advice, support and information to anyone involved in adoption. We provide an advice line, counselling and a therapeutic service for adoptive families. We are a charity and were set up in 1986.
Adoptive parents face increasing challenges from children who are emotionally damaged by early (pre-adoption) life experiences. They face daily violence, school refusal, anti-social behaviour and family disruption. Often parents come to the Centre having used mainstream child mental health services that are not equipped to address the needs of adopted children or give effective strategies to parents.
Our Parenting fund project will provide free training and workshops for adoptive/foster parents whose children have emotional/behavioural problems stemming from early loss and trauma. The programme will be tailored to the needs of adoptive/foster parents and equip them to enjoy better family relationships, ensure secure emotional attachment and safeguard the adoptive placement. It will cover frequently requested topics, such as parenting troubled teenagers, as well as providing time for discussion so parents can contribute to the training agenda. Workshops on trans-racial adoption will also be offered. Experienced adoption practitioners provide all our training and much of it is being offered at evenings and weekends.
Adoptive parent support will be achieved by developing the service in collaboration with local authority adoption teams. Initially, we will target East and West Sussex, Merton, Kent, Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire because of the high numbers of adoptive families in these areas.