We ask that question in this week’s What Next podcast episode, featuring Shelise Gieseke. Give it a listen and check out the show notes, but we’re also putting that question to you. What could infinite money do for adoptee rights and adopted people generally? We’re listening.
Post your own thoughts or chime in on the ideas we’ve already explored, including an adoptee-led and focused research center, a national legal clinic to represent adopted people for free, a mental health clinic and resource center, and a well-funded national organization that provides messaging, lobbying, and support for activism.
Show Notes
This week I talked with Shelise Gieseke of Adoption Mosaic, about the organization’s evolution from a nonprofit, to hiatus, and finally to its existence today as a straight-up commercial adoptee-driven business. You can learn more about what Shelise does— as well as her work with Astrid Castro—at the Adoption Mosaic website. Upcoming Adoption Mosaic programming includes its ongoing “We the Experts Series” (highly recommended) with a February 12 panel discussion about transracial adoptee identity (register for it at EventBrite). Adoption Mosaic also offers trainings, consulting, and other resources, including adoptee panels, workshops for adoptive parents, and one-on-one services. You can also find Adoption Mosaic on Facebook and Instagram.
If you listen to this week’s show and want to hear more of it, we’re releasing another half-hour of conversation that we couldn’t squeeze into the released episode. If you subscribe to What Next on Apple, Google, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or most podcast platforms, that content will be released later this week.
The Janchi Show, a podcast “by, for and about Korean adoptees,” is mentioned at the beginning of this week’s episode. It’s a great podcast about “three Korean adoptees spread out around the US, and each of us are at different stages in life. We talk about the Korean Adoptee experience in America and learn more about our shared culture, usually with food.” A recent episode featured Shelise talking about her advocacy work, family, and her experience in returning to Korea.
Shelise mentioned GOAL, or Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link, as the organization that facilitated her trip to Korea. More information about GOAL is here.
Please comment, share, and discuss what money could do for our movement.
Hi!
What hits me between the eyes every day is the amount of misinformation and prurient content generated that becomes the baseline for what most people know about adoption. Then there’s the money from the adoption industry that furthers the myths. Glaser’s book, An American Baby, did not sell well. This makes it hard for any other book to break through with agents and publishers. Many adoptees and adoptee organizations create posts on Facebook and Twitter that are seen only by other adoptees. This will not move the needle. Grants are not going to be given to us because the misinformation is so pervasive. We need to think big. Yes chasing the money is a bummer, but I think, from what I’ve heard on this podcast, that the chasing has not occurred in the right places.
We need some big-pocketed private donors. That means we need a development office. Maybe there are a few adoptees with development backgrounds who would like to take this on. Or current leaders within the adoptee community could directly reach out to wealthy adoptees and others. Perhaps the Ukraine situation could be a starting point to educate and fundraise among such donors.
The adoptee community needs to look outward.
If money was no object, I would suggest an ongoing comprehensive, inclusive marketing and communications campaign to generate awareness towards policy change and countering the false narratives, such as:
-A Netflix or HBO series to counter the “Adults Adopt Adults” reality show and the savior stories that are rampant on those two platforms.
-PSAs with celebrity adoptees like Billy Joel, Christopher Walken, Colin Kapernick (I bet he can talk about race and adoption) as well as ordinary adoptees, talking about their experiences in the context of current pending legislation in their locality. We could look to the advertising industry to get reduced production costs, and it is not expensive to run PSAs in local media outlets.
-Thought-leadership events with experts in therapeutic fields, like Bessel Van der Kolk, Nancy Verrier, Nancy Carlis etc. These events could be held locally at the same time and place that legislation is pending and PSAs are running. SXSW might be interested in a broader conversation, such as Ukraine and the horrible history of inter-country adoption.
– Develop a youtube channel that offers serious news programming on adoption issues, current research, along with the above content.
-Yes to investing in media, longterm. There is no reason this has to be anything but diverse and inclusive. Don’t worry about how it gets done. Those of us in advertising and media take complex issues and boil them down every day.
Internal issues about race do not have to be completely resolved before you can do an external campaign. Yes, there is a place for scholars on race in such a campaign.
Those are just a few quick ideas. I’d spend to change the narrative so that stupid laws like the one we just saw in Idaho would be laughed at one day. The industry shift you discuss will occur when perception shifts. This is not a project. This is an ongoing slog to change people’s minds. It should go hand-in-hand with adoptee-led lobbying.
The adoption community needs to speak and develop a robust presence outside of itself.
If there is any interest in having more conversation about this, I’d be interested in participating.
Btw, a million bucks won’t do it. We need a lot more than that.
Thanks for asking the question.
Anne Rudig