Ten Years of Adoption Support Alliance
On June 6 2024, Adoption Support Alliance will mark TEN YEARS as a nonprofit organization helping adoptive families through the unique challenges of building their forever families. We are looking forward to growing and celebrating our community throughout the year of this milestone anniversary!
ASA was established in 2014 to fill in a gap in services for adoptive families. Those of you who have been around for a while have heard this analogy before- there are a lot of organizations to support the wedding of adoption- the legal process that is obviously critical to making an adoptive family. We established ASA to support the marriage- the long-term, daily challenges and needs that often arise when an adoptive family is formed.
And, here we are, ten years in! You have graciously allowed us to walk with your families on this adoption journey for a DECADE. During the last ten years, our community has done some pretty remarkable things:
To those of you, who completed our Adoption 101 class in those early years, and are now sending the baby you adopted to elementary school.- we are so grateful to have been a part of your journey
To those of you who shifted your parenting approach and have seen significant positive improvements in child’s behaviors and your ability to show up as the parent you want to be - we will keep cheering you on!
To those of you who have forged deep relationships in our connection groups, as you support one another in identity development, processing the complicated feelings of adoption and/or searching for details of your history. - thank you for being a part of our community that ‘gets it’.
To those who have documented your family’s changes and growth (some even for eight years!) of family pictures from our annual Fall Photo Fundraiser. - we love seeing your beautiful faces and are so grateful for your support.
To those who haven’t seen change just yet, but still have the hope of improvement that comes from being a part of a community in which you are seen and understood. - we aren’t going anywhere, keep showing up!
To those who were completely overwhelmed by the idea of adoption when you were first introduced to Adoption Support Alliance, and are now experienced adoptive parents eagerly meeting with families considering adoption. - thanks for giving back!
To those who have braved intimidating conversations with your children about complicated and painful topics related to adoption or risked reaching out to birth family members with an increase in confidence, knowing it was best for your child. - we are so very proud of you.
We are so very proud of all our community has accomplished in the last ten years and are so very thankful to all of the people - paid staff, volunteers, clients, participants, community partners, donors and board members- who have been a part of this organization and contributed to the work of Adoption Support Alliance.
The Future of Adoption Support Alliance
Without a doubt, we’re not done yet! As you know, there is still so much work to be done in our adoption community. And, we have plans and dreams and hopes for how Adoption Support Alliance- and our community- will continue to grow over the next decades.
We need more adoption-competent clinicians- more professionals who “get it”, who are easy to identify, who don’t have waitlists for services and can provide support for adoptive families to- not just survive- but to thrive.
We need more connection groups- for transracial families, for families struggling to attach, for our children to normalize adoption as a way to build family, for international adoptive families, for families navigating the highest levels of our mental health systems or for families adjusting after a newborn comes home.
We want all adoptees in our community to be able to say they don’t remember a time when they did not have a connection with other adoptees to support them as they navigate the difficulties in identity development and the complications that are inevitable when you have both a biological family and an adoptive family.
We want more of you to be friends with one another - to connect through ASA and then see who your relationships deepen outside of us to create community in your own neighborhoods- communities eager to welcome new adoptive families.
We want to learn all the things from all the experts in this field (that is growing exponentially) and then share them with you. What parenting approaches can help kids heal from trauma, how does trauma affect the brain, how sensory systems are strengthened after early breaks in attachment, how do we build attachment and why is it so difficult? There is so much we still want to learn and teach.
We want to plan retreats and conferences and camps and parties and all the spaces in which adoptive families can be seen and celebrated and can grow together.
In order to do all this- to see these dreams become reality and to dream of new things yet to come- to continue to connect, equip, support, encourage and engage adoptive families, we need your ongoing, consistent financial support.
As we begin 2024, while we have MANY generous donors (and we are NOT minimizing those contributions), we have FOUR donors who give to the organization on a monthly basis. We can rely on their financial contributions each and every month. We can budget with some certainty that their donations will continue. 75% of those donors have their donations matched by their corporate employers- doubling their impact. We now have a name for these committed supporters; they are Adoption Support Alliance’s COMMUNITY BUILDERS. They are supporting ASA each and every month so that we can consistently support adoptive families.
As we celebrate 10 years of ASA, we are setting apart our Community Builders and recognizing their positive impact on the organization. In addition, we have a goal in our 10th year to expand the program tenfold. By December 31, 2024, we would like to have 40 donors who give monthly as a Community Builder.
Are you someone who gives a generous gift at the end of the year? Consider becoming a Community Builder and breaking up your donation into monthly gifts that we can rely on and then that’s one less thing on your list at the end of the year!
Do you love the work of ASA but don’t feel like you have a lot of financial resources to spare? There is no amount too small. Even a donation of $10 a month makes an impact- especially if your employer will double the impact!
Have you considered making a gift before or maybe given once and are motivated by helping organizations meet concrete goals? Now is the time to join our Community Builders.
Maybe you are not an adoptive parent and do not feel that adoption is the path for your family- but you believe in the importance of stable and thriving adoptive families in your community. We’d love for you to join our Community Builders!
Over the course of the next several months, we will share with you more about how monthly giving help us in ways beyond just increasing the organization’s bottom line. As you support the organization in this consistent way, we also want to engage deeper with our Community Builders over the course of the year- celebrate you, share with you more specific plans for the future, allow your experiences and challenges and advice and perspectives to shape the organization. After all, this is a community we are building for you!
THANK YOU! To all of you who have made a decade of Adoption Support Alliance a reality. We look forward to seeing how this community will step up and support us in growing our Community Builders from 4 donors to 40 donors!
Celebrating with you,
Erin, Molly, and the rest of the ASA team
PS Stay tuned for more information for how we - as a community of adoptive families - will celebrate ten years!