For Immediate Release: April 2, 2003
Contact: Kathryn Creedy: 802-442-2845
NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: kcreedy@adoptioninformationinstitute.org or info@adoptioninformationinstitute.org
WEB ADDRESS: www.adoptioninformationinstitute.org

NAME CHANGE FOR CELEBRATE ADOPTION

Bennington, VT - As part of an effort to more accurately reflect its mission, Celebrate Adoption is changing its name to the Institute for Adoption Information. (www.adoptioninformationinstitute.org).

"We changed our name out of respect for the fact that the 50-year legacy of secrecy has yielded many who cannot celebrate adoption," said Executive Director Kathryn Creedy. "While Celebrate Adoption is a fine name, it suggests that we are cheerleaders, when, in fact, we have always been educators. Our mission is to enhance the understanding of adoption and the issues affecting triad members. In addition, our future projects require that our organization have no other agenda than educating the public about adoption. Our new site is up and running and our new email addresses are in effect."

IAI's mission is to develop projects designed to dispel myths and stereotypes and enhance the understanding of adoption and the issues affecting triad members. It also advocates for balanced coverage in news and entertainment programming in an effort to eliminate the social bias against adoption; a bias that wrongly suggests that those touched by adoption are somehow problematic or their family ties are less genuine than those in biological families. The social bias extends to the experience of birth parents, the least understood and most criticized of all the triad members. IAI's motivation is not only to help enhance the understanding of adoption but, in so doing, eliminate one of the initial barriers to adoption for the 134,000 children who still await families of their own.

The Institute for Adoption Information will continue to develop tools triad members ­ adoptees as well as their birth and adoptive parents ­ can use to educate others about adoption. It has identified several professions that encounter adoption in their work. These professionals, however, do not realize how societal attitudes about adoption effects that work. IAI's first work, An Educator's Guide to Adoption, was geared toward teachers and has been introduced into school districts nationwide as well as in Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. IAI's second book, A Guide to Adoption for Health Care & Counseling Professionals, educates counselors and medical professionals who work with women and families facing an unplanned pregnancy. IAI is now working on its third book which will debut in late spring.