VALUES STATEMENT FOR
CONFERENCE PLANNERS

The California Adoption Conference (CAC) is organized by a diverse group of non-profit organizations who are involved in pre- and post-adoption and foster care services for all members of the adoption triad including first/birth parents, adoptees and foster alum, adoptive and foster parents as well as extended family members, and the helping professionals who support them. The CAC Conference Planners have determined certain core values that define our approach to education for the conference as follows:

• Adoption and foster care are lifetime journeys that do not end with placement; therefore, lifetime support is needed;

• Voices that have been underrepresented or marginalized in adoption, especially those of people who are/were adopted or in foster care, and first/birth families should be elevated and heard;

• Adoption providers should never discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status or marital status. The CAC requires that programming offered not promote discrimination in adoption;

• People of color are underserved in adoption. Adopted people deserve to know their full heritage and this is often easier when placements with parents of matching race occur; transracial adoption works best when parents acknowledge the pervasive power of race with honesty and integrity;

• We support the right of adopted people to obtain copies of their original birth certificates;

• Based on field research, open adoption is generally considered best practice in child welfare. Adoption professionals should help adoptive families preserve lifelong connections to the birth/first families in voluntary and child welfare placements as much as is possible;

• Adoption is complicated, and should never be promoted as an unqualified good nor evil, as all aspects of the experience should be validated and recognized. In particular, we seek to insure that the inherent loss and challenges are not minimized as they sometimes are by the media or profit-seeking adoption service providers;

• Adoption providers should approach all placement interactions with foremost care and concern for the well-being of the adopted (or fostered) person. Non-profit adoption providers are more likely to be able to keep monetary and clinical issues separate to ensure that adoption is truly child-centered. For this reason, CAC does not include sponsors who are for-profit entities.