National Adoption Week needs you!

We’re looking for families like you to take part in a new public campaign for this year’s National Adoption Week (w/c 21^st October) to drive awareness and continue to reshape attitudes about what adoption looks like today.

The campaign will continue this year’s theme of The Journey and aims to celebrate adoption journeys of all kinds and reflect on the people who are part of these lifelong journeys (both before and after adoption), and the important role they’ve played along the way.

Who we’d love to hear from

We’d love to hear from a variety of people from different backgrounds, sexual orientations and ethnicities who can speak passionately about their lifelong adoption journeys – including what makes their family unique, the ups and downs, the people they have met along the way, and how they have navigated issues like their identity and relationships.

Given our focus on how adoptive families and their journeys are each unique, we’re looking for a wide range of stories to share – from adoptive parents with young children, to older adopted people/adults who can talk about their ongoing journey as adoptees – challenging the idea that adoption is a single ‘event’ in someone’s life. In particular, we’re keen to reflect the diversity of modern adoptive family life and would love to include families from Black African and Caribbean, ethnic minoritised and mixed heritage backgrounds.

We would also love to find families/adoptees who are happy to be filmed alongside other significant people such as their social worker, adopter buddy, and family and friends who have been part of their experience and support network.

Ideas of the kind of people we’d like to hear from include:

• Adopted people now in teens or adulthood who are willing to appear alongside their adopted parents, and potentially other people who have been part of their journey
• Parents of adopted children, including:

• • Parents who adopted a baby
  • Parents who adopted a young child (under 5)
  • Parents who adopted an older child (5+)
  • Parents who adopted a sibling group
  • Parents who adopted a child with a disability
  • Parents who adopted through early permanence (also known as fostering to adopt)

• We encourage a mix of parents, including:

• • Single parents
  • LGBTQ+
  • Couples
  • Representing different regions in England
  • Representing different ethnicities

What does the role involve?

• Taking part in a recorded interview that would form part of a campaign film(s), to then be used on the You Can Adopt social media channels (as well as regional adoption agencies and voluntary adoption agencies across England) and in UK press.
• Taking part in photography that will also be used as part of the campaign, on social media and in UK press.
• Potentially filming your own UGC (user-generated content), to also be used as part of the campaign on You Can Adopt social media channels social media – optional
• Taking part in interviews with media about the experience of adopting a child (or being adopted)

• • To note, people willing to share their life stories must therefore be happy to tell their story publicly. The strong preference is for families to be shown in the films and in media. We can work around your preferences for which kind of media you are happy to take part in.

Families will need to be available to take part in photography and film (in a London location) in early September (exact date TBC), with the campaign launch planned for National Adoption Week in October (21^st – 27^th). Travel expenses will of course be covered.

Example film content

• Here is an example from the first part of the campaign of how your story may be used within the filmed content for social media.

 Next steps

If you’re interested, please send an email to adoption@freuds.com before 23rd August.  They will then set up an initial phone call to tell you more about the campaign, chat through your story, and work out whether it’s right for you, before you decide if you want to progress.