Welcome to our Calendar of Events!
This calendar includes opportunities for learning and connection from the Wisconsin Family Connections Center, the Coalition for Children, Youth & Families, and several other organizations across Wisconsin. (NOTE: Opportunities from the Wisconsin Family Connections Center are noted with a blue ribbon on the calendar below.)
–> Find training and event flyers here.
–> For a complete listing of Regional Events and Support Groups, please visit the Wisconsin Family Connections Center Eventbrite Page.
–> Find support group flyers here.
–> For information about Recorded Webinars, Upcoming Live Webinars, Courses, and Conferences, please visit the Champion Classrooms.
Events are added as information is made available to us. If you’d like to share an upcoming event with us, please contact us at info@wifamilyconnectionscenter.org.
- This event has passed.
Adoptee-Birthparent Activism In The Faith Community
April 30 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
$15This session explores the critical intersection of faith and adoption activism through the personal and professional experiences of both an adoptee and birth mother. Dr. Patrice Martin and Mellisa Lathion, MSN, share their journey of collaboration in establishing the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption, highlighting the often overlooked impacts of adoption practices within religious communities.
The speakers address the concerning lack of awareness in faith communities regarding adoption-related trauma and the historical role religious institutions have played in adoption practices. Through their shared expertise and lived experiences, they illuminate why these conversations are essential and how their work through the Faith Collective aims to bring healing, education, and reform to adoption narratives within faith contexts.
Dr. Martin brings her perspective as an adoptee who found her biological family on TLC’s “Long Lost Family,” while Mellisa brings her perspective from her 25-year-long journey as a birth mom in a semi-open adoption. Together, they discuss their efforts to create spaces for truth-telling, education, and advocacy within religious communities.
This presentation offers a rare opportunity to understand how faith communities can better support all members of the adoption constellation while acknowledging past harms and working toward more ethical, transparent practices.
