Institute of Open Adoption Studies
Conversations on Children and Permanency – Perspectives on Relationships Over the Life Span
Wednesday 28 August
5pm to 7.30pm
Auditorium, Administrative Building F23
Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney
Entry: ***Free and open to all with online registrations essential
Join in the conversation between Professor Harold Grotevant (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and Associate Professor Amy Conley Wright (The University of Sydney).
For more than 30 years, Professor Grotevant has led the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP), a longitudinal research study focusing on the consequences of openness in adoption arrangements for all members of the adoptive kinship network (birth mothers, adoptive parents, and adopted people) and the relationships within these family systems.
Dr Wright leads research in NSW capturing the experiences of children and their families involved in the care system.
This discussion will explore learnings from the MTARP study that have contributed new insights to human development within the family and implications for adoption policy and practice today.
Dr Wright will relate draw links to current NSW permanency reforms in out-of-home care, focusing on what has been learned to keep children connected to their families and cultures of origin by building kinship networks that bridge the adoptive and birth family, with the child at the centre.
