Adoption Awareness Video

Adoption awareness video Series

According to a recent Harris Poll on behalf of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, 66% of Americans say they are only somewhat or not at all familiar with adoption. Spence-Chapin hopes to change that.

With the Adoption Awareness Video Project, we are bringing together the voices of well-known faces to talk about their own personal connections to adoption in self-recorded videos, helping to increase understanding about adoption by those not connected to adoption while at the same time ensuring that everyone in the adoption constellation knows that there is a supportive commnity out there for them. The videos we are creating we will be sharing widely through social media, and we hope you will, too!

See some of our videos below and how you can participate in this important video project!

VIDeos

VIDEO ACKNOWLEDGENTS

Thank you to all who participated in our Adoption Awareness Video Project!

We are humbled by the beautiful, honest, and personal stories families and individuals have shared through this project. We thank you for helping to raise awareness around adoption!

Samantha Chadwick

Samantha Coleman

Sheila Jaffe

Siya Madikane

Darryl “DMC” McDaniels

Kevin Nelson

Melissa Guida-Richards

Robert Scheer

Sandria Washington

Jonathan Witmer

David Beach, Russell Granet and Sadie Granet-Beach

Sheri Graubert, James Dolan, and Sasha and Lila Graubert-Dolan

Alston, Geraldine & Noah Walker

Byron Ward, Billie Christie & Joie Ward

How to Participate

Instructions for Recording National Adoption Month Video Selfie

Thank you for participating in our video series! Below are instructions for recording the video. You can use the questions below as a guide, but please share what is important to you about adoption and what you want the world to know. When you are ready to upload your video, please fill out the form at the bottom and click “Submit Your Video Here.” You will be brought to our secure Dropbox file upload page. Thank you!

Instructions

Record a vertical video of yourself or you and your family answering the following questions. Please pause for a second or two in between answering each question.

What is your name and your connection to adoption? (Example: “My name is John Doe and I am an adoptee”)
What is your favorite thing about being connected to adoption?
What is a challenge that you have experienced as a result of people not fully understanding what adoption is?
What is something you have learned about adoption through your own adoption journey?
What is something you would like the world to know about adoption?
What is the most special or unique part of your adoption story?
Fill in the blank with 1-3 words: Adoption is ___________________.
Lastly, say your connection to adoption one more time (i.e., “I am an adoptee,” or “I am an adoptive dad.”)

A sample video may look something like this:

My name is Susan Smith and I am an adoptive mom.
My favorite thing about being connected to adoption is that it brought me to my children.
I have always had to be a strong advocate for my children because they often have insensitive questions from strangers about their adoption that can be really hurtful.
In our adoption journey, we have learned that talking to others about our adoption story helps others learn about adoption but also helps us feel more connected.
I would love for other people to know that everyone has a family story, and all of our stories are unique, and while for some of us that story includes adoption, there are many, many ways to be a family. Adoption is no different.
In our family, two of our children were adopted 10 years apart but are biological half-siblings, which is really special.
Adoption is family.
I am an adoptive mom.

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO HERE!

To submit your video to Spence-Chapin for our National Adoption Month series, please fill out the below information and click Submit Your Video to upload your video to our Dropbox folder: