#AdoptAbility - Disabled People Can & Should Adopt
Disabled people in the North East can and should adopt....that's the message from a Durham charity. DFW Adoption say their research has found many people with disabilities are put off trying to adopt children as they think their condition will hold them bacl. The innovative new project entitled AdoptAbility, has found that many people with disabilities are put off by the adoption process, assuming they wouldn’t be successful because of their condition.
AdoptAbility is set to challenge this idea and wants to diminish the myths surrounding the subject, by launching this campaign and encouraging people with disabilities to come forward as adoptive parents.
The campaign is the first of its kind in the country after research from the University of Edinburgh found in 2011 that only 1% of adoptive parents in the country have some form of disability.
The project will be working with leading businesses in disability including Remploy, Disability North and Percey Hedley.
Margaret Bell, Project Manager of AdoptAbility said:
“Disabled people have a range of strategies and coping mechanisms in place to cope with things that we take for granted. As an adoption agency, we can listen, learn and treat everyone as an individual, because what we’re looking for in adopters is resourcefulness, determination and resilience and to me, that neatly fits into a life pattern for people who have disabilities.”
To coincide with this, an exciting AdoptAbility launch will be taking place on Thursday 28th May, 2-7pm at Disability North’s Dene Centre. This is a chance to give supporters, peers and most importantly potential adopters with disabilities the opportunity to visit the team to get an understanding of who the team are, how they work and the opportunity to ask any questions.
AdoptAbility is a scheme which has the potential to help people with a disability to become parents through adoption, to spread the message to disabled people hoping to be adopters, that AdoptAbility is here in the North East to support and guide them. Whilst also helping to dispel some of the myths surrounding disabled adoption.
For more information on the AdoptAbility campaign, please go to www.adoptability.co.uk