CASA Podcast Club
Episode 3 (Virtual Meeting)
Join us as we discuss Around the World With the Archibald Project: The Side of Adoption You Must Know With Ashley Mitchell (Episode 83) [1 hr.]
Click here to listen online before attending the discussion.
This episode is an intro to the voice of a first mother, who placed a child for adoption. Explores concepts of open adoption, continued contact after adoption, support for first families, adoption ethics.
“Adoption starts after you leave the hospital; that’s not where it ends, the journey really starts with relinquishment. You come home, and the ‘What’s Next’ is crushing.”
Optional: Dive deeper into the topic by listening to a bonus podcast, Black to the Beginning: The Secret of the Black Birthmother (Season 2, Episode 4) [44 min]
Please note - This meeting is for CASA of Central Virginia volunteers, staff, and board members only.
In preparation for the meeting, think about these discussion questions:
What were some of your key takeaways from what you listened to this week?
Were there any perspectives shared by speakers that you had never considered before, or that differed from the previous conception of adoption you had?
What themes did you notice between the various recordings (if you listened to more than one)? What commonalities, what differences?
What themes did you notice between this listening and previous ones?
How have you seen any of these themes or dynamics play out in any of your cases?
How will you apply concepts learned here to your personal networks and life domains?
How would you apply lessons or takeaways from this podcast to your case (or future cases)?
What are the tensions being juxtaposed here? What both/and(s) are apparent in this person’s story?
What have you learned this month from adoptee voices you’ve been following on social media?
Any follow-up questions, threads you want to chase?
About this Series
Through monthly "book club" style discussion-based gatherings, this training series seeks to better understand the incredibly complex experience of adoption. Using 1 podcast episode per month, as well as occasional in-session video viewings and guests, we will highlight too-little heard voices in this series, including adoptees, birth parents, extended members of first families and older youth, as well as voices from marginalized communities, such as Black, Native, and transracial adoptees. As we listen to a new podcast episode each month, we will look for themes that emerge that connect the unique stories and examine our own assumptions and beliefs around adoption. Each session, we will also discuss ways we can apply what we've learned to casework as well.
For this series, participants will get credit for each 2-hour discussion session, but also for the time they spend listening to podcast episodes to prepare. Each session is complimentary and builds on things learned in previous sessions, but each session can also be enjoyed as a standalone in-service. To protect the candor and growth mindset of these discussions, sessions will not be recorded.