Openness in Adoption

The value of this training is $150, Help One Child offers this to you at no cost. Donations of any size will support the organization’s mission and ability to serve families and children around the bay.

Course Description

Leading experts, Angela Tucker and Lori Holden, will train us on the benefits of openness in adoption. This includes exploring what “open adoption” means and three examples. Learn about the Inclusive Family Support Model with a tour of the quadrants and an openness vs. contact model.

Loss and grief are core issues in adoption. This training explores both, going more in depth into ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief. Expect and engaging session with time for questions and answers.

Learning Objectives

1. Attendees will be able to articulate the differences among the four quadrants of the Inclusive Family Support Model
2. Attendees will understand the tenets of openness in adoption.
3. Attendees will become familiar with the terms ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief

Angela Tucker

Angela Tucker is the Executive Director of the Adoptee Mentoring Society and the host of the podcast INNOVATE, where she interviews visionaries who are leading the way in the child welfare system. She is the subject of the documentary, “Closure”, which chronicles her biological family search. As the CEO of The Adopted Life, Tucker hosts The Adoptee Next Door podcast, produces short educational films about adoption and offers regular consulting for media, agencies and families. Tucker earned a BA in Psychology from Seattle Pacific University and lives in Seattle with her husband. For more on Tucker, visit her website: AngelaTucker.com

Lori Holden

Lori Holden writes at LavenderLuz.com and hosts the podcast Adoption: TheLong View, which aims to help adoptive parents better understand the complexities of adoption earlier in their journey. She’s the author of the acclaimed book, The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption, written with her daughter’s birth mom and recommended by many adoption agencies across the US and Canada, as well as in People magazine. She conceived of the Open Adoption Grid, on which the Inclusive Family Support Model is based. Her latest book is titled Adoption Unfiltered  which Lori co-authored with adoptee Sara Easterly and birth parent Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard. It will be published in December of 2023. Lori was nominated by Senator Michael Bennet as an Angel in Adoption® and honored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. She and her husband live in Denver and parent two young adult children.