What is adoption?
Adoption is a way of providing new and permanent family ties for a child or youth when their birth parents either can’t care for them, or choose to place them for adoption.
Legally speaking, adoption is the transfer of parental rights and responsibilities from one or both birth parents or guardians to one or more adoptive parents.
What is permanency?
For a child or youth, having permanency means having a sense of belonging and lifelong connection to a family. At the end of the day, this is what’s most important to us at the Belonging Network.
Permanency has four dimensions: legal, physical, cultural, and relational. An ideal permanency arrangement is what best meets the needs of the child or youth, and does not mean that the arrangement needs to be equally strong in all four dimensions.
Adoption and guardianships are the most well-known types of permanency arrangements. Each shares similarities with kinship care and Indigenous customary care, though each arrangement has distinct legal and cultural differences.
What is the difference between adoption and permanency?
Each adoption is a permanency arrangement, but not all permanency arrangements lead to adoption. We believe that adoption belongs to the same “family” as permanency, along with arrangements like kinship care, guardianship, custom adoption, or long-term fostering.
Permanency provides stability, lifelong connection, and a sense of belonging to a child. Permanency is different for everyone and is not one-size-fits-all. Adoption creates permanency for a child in a way that includes the legal transfer of parenthood from a birth parent to an adoptive parent.
What is the difference between adoption and foster care?
In foster care, families temporarily care for a child or youth until the birth parents can resume their parental responsibilities. The primary goal of foster care is to support this reunification. Adoption is a permanent commitment. When a child is adopted, they join a new family and legal responsibility for their care is transferred to their new parent(s). The primary goal of adoption is to provide permanency: a lifelong commitment to love and care for a child, and give them a sense of belonging.
If a child cannot return to their birth parents, they sometimes become available for adoption. Other times there’s a different permanency plan, such as going to live with a relative, or staying in their foster home until adulthood. Foster parents may adopt children in their care (if they become available for adoption) — and often do!
All foster families receive a monthly maintenance payment that helps to cover the costs of caring for a child. This is different from the post-adoption financial assistance that the government provides to some families who adopt from foster care.
What kinds of adoption and permanency are there?
There are about a dozen types of permanency arrangements in British Columbia, including nine types of adoption.
With adoption, prospective parents can generally decide which path they’d like to take to grow their family. The most common types of adoption in BC are:
See all nine types of adoption here.
There are a few more ways that children and youth may find a loving home that don’t involve adoption. These options generally aren’t available to members of the public, as they usually involve adults that the child already knows the child.
What is a “custom adoption”?
A custom adoption is a type of permanency arrangement that refers to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis ways of caring for children and youth. It shares some similarities with legal adoption, but is a different practice.
Can I help create permanency for a child even if I’m not ready to be a parent?
For a child, permanency means having a network of lifelong supportive connections in many areas of their life. You don’t have to adopt to help create permanency for a child, though it’s the first thing that comes to mind for many.
Teachers, mentors, aunties and uncles, family friends, and respite caregivers can all create supportive relationships with children and youth that will contribute to a sense of permanency. Even committing to a weekly activity can offer a stable anchor point in a child’s schedule.
Here are a few ways to provide connection and care to a child or youth in need:
- Become a Big Brother or big sister.
- Become a volunteer grandparent.
- Become a foster caregiver.
Supporting a child’s sense of permanency
You can also help by putting your money where your heart is! Donations to the Belonging Network help strengthen families and support adoption, permanency, and youth in and from care.
Donate today!
