We Talk Adoption and Fostering (WTAF) – Our new podcast series!

We Talk Adoption and Fostering (WTAF)

Tuesday 4th June 2024

Scottish Adoption and Fostering is excited to announce the rebrand of TeenTalk to We Talk Adoption and Fostering (WTAF), a platform created by care experienced youngsters for care experienced youngsters.

WTAF will officially be launching this summer with a brand-new podcast series. The podcast will focus on topics that our Ambassadors have specifically told us are important to them. Our aim is to use this platform to create a community that will:

  • Be a space for care experienced teenagers to tell their stories.
  • Be a place for care experienced teenagers to connect with other relevant services.
  • Be a space to educate others, change practice and reduce stereotypes on adoption.

Supporting our Ambassadors to create the initial podcast episodes will be our summer intern Joy who is joining us for the summer. Find out more about her role here.

For more information about our Ambassador program or to contribute content to the We Talk Adoption and Fostering platform drop an email to Lynsey at ltrousdale@scottishadoption.org.

 

Back to News

Scottish Adoption and Fostering celebrates after receiving National Lottery funding to support Therapy Centre

Find out more about how our funding is going to be spent.

Wednesday 15th May 2024

Scottish Adoption and Fostering is celebrating after being awarded funding from the National Lottery to support its work continuing the delivery of wraparound therapeutic activities that support effective adoption and fostering in Scotland.

Scottish Adoption and Fostering’s Therapy Centre has been running for over ten years and is run by a team of qualified social workers, therapists and support staff from Scottish Adoption and Fostering’s Edinburgh office.

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will provide pre and post adoption support for individuals and families including therapeutic social work, counselling, parent support groups and play therapy.

Sue Brunton, Chief Executive of Scottish Adoption and Fostering, says: “We’re delighted and very grateful that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to extend the amazing work currently carried out by our After Adoption Support Team in supporting families who are at various stages in their adoption journey.”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk

 

Back to News

Proud to be the only certified W.I.S.E. Up Program Provider in the UK

Find out more about how our W.I.S.E. Up workshops can help you and your family.

Wednesday 15th May 2024

W.I.S.E. Up is an empowerment program designed to create a safe space for children to express their feelings about being adopted and to prepare them for intrusive and insensitive remarks from others as they get older. Questions they might encounter might include:

“Why don’t you look like your parents?”
“Where are your real parents?”
“Why don’t you live with your real family?”

The After Adoption Team at Scottish Adoption and Fostering are fully trained W.I.S.E. Up practitioners, in fact, we remain the only fully accredited organization in the UK. We regularly host in-person W.I.S.E. Up workshops at our Leith agency with the aim of helping to teach children that they can decide if, when, and how they share their own adoption story.

If you would be interested in attending a W.I.S.E. Up workshop or are looking for more information about how Scottish Adoption and Fostering could facilitate a workshop within your organization or agency reach out to us at info@scottishadoption.org. We would love to help!

You can also find out more about the program and our accreditation here: W.I.S.E. Up!® | C.A.S.E. | Nurture, Inspire, Empower (adoptionsupport.org)

 

 

Back to News

School Transition Groups at Scottish Adoption and Fostering

Shining a spotlight on the great work of our School Transition Groups.

Wednesday 20th March 2024

For nearly ten years Scottish Adoption and Fostering have been running school transition groups for children starting primary school or moving to high school in the new school year.

Meet the Session Leaders

Scott Mitchell – Scott is an adoptive parent and primary school teach in learning support with 14 years of experience. He is currently a Deputy Head Teacher.

Jette Lemvig – Jette is an Occupational Therapist with 15 years of experience working in CAMHS and has been part of the Scottish Adoption and Fostering team since 2015.

The Transition Groups

Each year we run two separate groups offering 3 online training sessions for parents whose children are transitioning in the next academic year.

We have already had the first sessions for our 2024 school transitioners in August last year. The session focused on readiness for school, reasons for deferring to P1 as well as help initiating transition meetings with your high school.

The second session in the program will run in March and focus on enhanced transition with adopted children in mind.

The third and last sessions run in September and is an opportunity for checking in on progress and potential need for further support.

The Benefits of the Groups

Each session offers the opportunity to meet with other parents and to have a forum to ask any questions you might have.

A lot of our adopted children find transitions in general very anxiety provoking and these are huge transitions for our parents too. This is why we feel it is important for families to be able to access support in making the transitions as smooth as possible.

Joining the Transition Groups is free of charge for Scottish Adoption and Fostering families. Please contact the office if you haven’t already received an invite and would like to attend.

 

Back to News

My Fostering Journey

Read how, to one family, Fostering is one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding things they have ever done!

Fostering is one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding things I have ever done. It is not a job but a vocation.

I started fostering with my husband when I was 21 years old. It was something we had always wanted to do and with two young children at home and a spare bedroom it was the ideal time for us to start. We fostered for a local authority for 3 years. In that time we cared for about 17 children, some stayed for short breaks whilst their main carers took a holiday to recharge, others came because they had no relatives to care for them whilst their parent was in hospital, some stayed for longer until their parents made the changes needed to have them home and others moved onto longer term foster carers. We then took a break as our family continued to grow and the needs of our own children changed, but always said we would come back to fostering when the time was right for our children and we had a room to spare.

We returned to fostering 7 years ago when our own children were older and more settled. Having experienced the challenges of short breaks and interim fostering for our own children, who struggled with lots of change, we decided we would prefer to offer long term or permanent fostering, alongside short breaks and interim. We fostered through an independent agency this time as we wanted to be sure of the support we would receive and felt that this gave us the best opportunity of finding the right child or children.

We have cared for a number of children over the last 7 years, including children who returned home. They have become part of our extended family as their mum ‘adopted’ us and saw the value for her children in keeping a connection with us.

We also have adopted through fostering our youngest child since she was 2 years old and have another child who is with us on a permanent fostering basis as adoption was not in his plan. However, there are benefits to this for him and us, as it means when he needs additional support we can go to social work for this and have access to other services he needs due to his early life experiences.

Fostering is rewarding but also hard work, especially as you have to earn the child’s trust. You have to be empathetic, accepting and remain curious at times when behaviours or words can make you feel anything but that. You have to see beyond the behaviours and look for the nugget of gold under the surface. It takes time, consistency and a lot of patience but oh is it worth it when you see the behaviours begin to fade. When you see a child really truly relax and enjoy life, and achieve what seemed to be impossible at the start of the journey, then you know all the hard work, tears and frustration was worth it.

Fostering is not for the faint hearted, but is the most rewarding thing you can do.

Back to Stories

Pack Your Bag and Worries

As students get ready to move out, this young person tells us how an #adoptionexperience might affect leaving home for the first time!

At age 18, I’ve decided to move into my very first flat. When I first moved out, just a little over two months ago now, I considered things like location, how I’d pay my rent and basically how to physically survive. At the time, I just felt happy in that this move would give me the freedom that I so desperately needed, but what I missed, was the huge emotional side to this.

After a week or so, living away from home, I got to thinking about some of the deepest topics of my life.  When living alone, it’s difficult to not over- think sensitive topics. I began think a lot again about my birth family and even though I’ve had great support from my adoptive family, there’s a bit of me that still questions why this happened to me and wonders what things would have been like if I’d stayed at home. Maybe the thinking became worse and especially difficult as I was no longer surrounded by the people who love me and care about me and I felt like all of a sudden, had no one to talk to. Now, I’m not saying that moving out on my own was my biggest regret, but I really underestimated how big a thing this would be for me personally.

Looking back, I realise now that I left my birth mum, then I left foster parents and friends from primary school and now, I’ve found myself leaving home voluntarily and missing my parents, my brother and my dog, more than I ever expected.

The process of being adopted removes your sense of control. Sometimes when I was younger,  I felt like a SIM character in a game. Now I like my routine. I like to know what’s happening and change can make me feel overly worried.

So, when I moved out things changed. I didn’t have the same routine, the same food and the same timetable. Instead, I’ve had to adapt. For me, adapting has meant finding a new routine in my new life and sticking to it, but also realising that it is now time to look at getting some help to talk about my past.

So, my advice to those of you who are care experienced and either moving out or thinking about it, take some time to think about what this change might mean for you personally. Think about, not just the financial and practical bits, but the bits you can’t see. The feelings, the memories and the worries you might also have to pack, for the big move.

Scottish Adoption Ambassador age 18

 

Back to Stories