Permanence

We've added 40 books to our adoption library! Check them out here, and stop by our head office in Burnaby to borrow one. For more information on our lending library visits our main library page.     

In ongoing this series, we interview experts about your key questions about adoption.

Are you an expert wanting to lend your knowledge to our families? Email us at editor@bcadoption.com.

AFABC’s education program has changed and grown a lot! In this article, our education team lead explains what we do now and how we do it.

Last year, the Ministry of Children and Family Development transitioned to an online adoption application process called Adopt BC Kids. To access the new system, prospective adoptive parents must sign up for a special type of identification called a BC Electronic ID (BCeID). A BCeID provides secure access to online government services like Adopt BC Kids. Here’s what you need to do to get one.

In this series Marion Crook, author and adoptive mom, takes us on a journey through changes in adoption in BC. Here, in part three, she focuses on adoption from foster care.

Fostering and adoption: then and now

The Adoptive Families Association of BC is celebrating its 40th anniversary. This is the third in a series exploring adoption and fostering over those last 40 years. It focuses on the evolution in foster care practice since 1977.

Being adopted isn't easy. It can be a very scary process. That is normal for most people. I was very scared going through the whole process of adoption. It's okay to be scared because being adopted is a very big change that will affect your whole life.

I got over my fear of being adopted by talking to friends and family about my feelings. I talked to people who I knew have been adopted to help me get over the fear of adoption.

Guardianship is a court process based on the Family Law Act that offers a way for anyone to create permanency for a child by becoming their guardian. This article explores its many similarities to adoption and its key differences. 

What is guardianship? 

Becoming a guardian means that you are responsible for all the decisions, care, supervision, and day-to-day decisions for a child. When parents are absent or unable to raise their children, other parents, family members, or grandparents often step in to help. 

There are hundreds of teenagers in foster care who need permanent homes. In this interview Paula^*, a mom who’s adopted four youth, shares her journey.
^*all names have been changed to protect the family's privacy.

Tell me about your family.

I live in a small, coastal town. I’m a single mom. I have seven children: Naomi (27), Tessa (25), Jack (24),  Rob (23), Cameron (21), Justin (18), and Blake (17).

The Indigenous Perspectives Society (IPS), formerly Caring for First Nations Children Society, is a registered charitable non-profit founded in 1994. IPS has played a significant role in the delivery of training and policy development in the Indigenous child welfare field. We interviewed IPS staff about their recent move into providing support and training to caregivers of Indigenous children who are in foster care.

Their lives, their words, their voices: why we should listen and what we can do