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.

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

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)

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.