IAC turned 25 in March 2022. Since we were founded in 1997, IAC has worked with 1000s of children and families. During these years IAC has continued to evolve from a phone line to an international adoption & permanence agency.
Adoption is changing and so is the way that we think about it and deliver our services. Central to this change process are the voices of those affected by adoption, and none are more important than those of adopted adults.
As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, IAC is launching The Adoption Reconstruction. This is a programme of listening, learning, and changing that we have created and will lead on during the coming months. Launching with our anniversary conference we will continue this programme through a series of talks, workshops, and courses. The conference and programme will cover the breadth of all adoption, both internationally and across the UK.
Our CEO, Satwinder Sandhu says: "When I joined IAC in 2019 I knew I was taking over the leadership of an organisation undergoing consolidation of its work, impact and expertise. Since then the pandemic has brought new challenges, but our work with children and families remains vibrant, important and ever changing. As a charity we have become more attuned to the principles of being a trauma informed and trauma sensitive agency, and of course the global debate on racism, since the death of George Floyd has also shaped our work. As an organisation working to transform the lives of the world's most vulnerable children, we want to ensure that our services are informed by those who are most affected by them, so we are working with adopted adults to incorporate 'adoptee voices' into our work. As we are tasked with helping parents give their adopted children a strong self-identity, we are also putting in place new and updated services and support to enable this to happen effectively, confidently and routinely. Adoption is for life and so is our support.
In June this year, IAC will host a virtual conference to bring together some of these areas of work to showcase what is informing our work and evolution, and hopefully to inspire those affected by adoption or working in this field, to also listen, learn and change. With 25 years of experience in this work, we want to share our knowledge and also continue to grow.
We have a fantastic range of speakers with us on the day exploring the intersectionality between identity, racism, trauma and adoption. We know it is going to be a rich and important conference, so encourage as many people to attend as possible, from all over the world."
Tickets to the conference are available via Eventbrite here and are subsidised for those organisations that partner with IAC. We hope to see you there!