Is your adoption group looking for a way to present the triad viewpoint to people in the media or simply to non-triad members? Or, perhaps you’d like to make triad members aware of your existence so they can take advantage of the programs and/or support you offer. If so, the Green Ribbon Campaign has an idea for you. GRC’s program, Voices of Adoption, literally gives voice to the triad experience.

The program grew out of an awareness of some basic facts about the adoption journey from the standpoint of an adoptee. In 2000, GRC’s national coordinator, Ann Wilmer, organized a conference with a colleague from the social work department at Salisbury University where she teaches media studies and communications. It was very well-received by practicing social workers, as well as students in social work training, who got a chance to hear directly from persons whose lives were impacted by adoption. Triad members who participated also thought the forum for an exchange of ideas was a good idea.

Publicity surrounding the event made Wilmer the “go-to” person on campus for student adoptees with questions. “Other professors, and even the head of student counseling referred students searching for their biological families to me,” she said.

Psychologists tell us that we all begin to come to terms with aspects of our self-concept as separate from our parents as we emerge into adulthood, usually between the ages of 16 and 19. For adoptees, it is a time to question everything about their own experience that they don’t understand and to come to terms with what it means and how it affects both their self-concept and their self-esteem. These are also concepts that Wilmer discusses with her students in “fundamentals” classes.

Meanwhile, on-going discussions among triad participants suggested that there was a need for a forum to speak their minds directly to others and an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences. As Wilmer shared with colleagues the questions she often got from students, “several of the birth mothers who participated expressed a willingness to talk to adoptees one-on-one, or to any student with questions about adoption.”

Since the major purpose of GRC is public education about the need for adoption reform, the Voices of Adoption program was launched in 2002. It is co-hosted by Wilmer and another colleague at the college with personal experience of adoption. And they recruited their triad friends to speak about their personal experience or read an appropriate short selection from the literature as a point of departure for discussion. Once the speakers have all presented, they take questions from the audience. To recruit an audience, most professors in the department as well as some in psychology, social work or education encourage their students to attend; some even give extra credit.