Encompass Adoptees

One week to go until our Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon!

Together with Adoptees United Inc., we invite everyone in the adoption constellation to join us next Sunday, June 21st.

Wikipedia shapes public understanding, but when it comes to adoption, too many entries are outdated, incomplete, inaccurate, or missing adoptee perspectives. Together, we can help improve adoption-related pages and bring greater accuracy, context, and lived experience to one of the world’s most-used sources of information.

Let’s center adoptee voices and work toward a more complete and truthful representation of adoption. Everyone in the adoption constellation is welcome!

📅 Sunday, June 21st�🕐 1pm PT (4pm ET)�💻 Online

Register and join us! https://bit.ly/wiki-edit-June2026

Community Dinner 🥗

Join us for a casual evening of good food and conversation with other adult adoptees, fostered, and kinshipped people. This is a relaxed, welcoming space to connect with the community, no pressure, no structured discussion topics, just time together.

🗓️ Thursday, June 4th, 2026
⏱️ 6:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M.
📍 East Market
212 Kelton Ave, Columbus, OH

Choose dinner from any of the East Market vendors and join us at a table to eat and chat! This group typically meets on the first Thursday of the month, though be sure to check the schedule beforehand.

New to the group? Feel free to reach out beforehand through our website or by contacting Heather.
📧 [email protected]
📞 614.600.6183

Community Dinner- for Adult Adoptees, Fostered, & Kinshipped People — Encompass Adoptees This is a casual dinner, a time to enjoy good food and good conversations, with other adult adopted, fostered, and/or kinshipped people. This group usually meets every first Thursday of the month and usually meets at the Market — but CHECK the schedule because we occasionally change this up around

In ‘Homesick,’ a Director Explores Belonging as an Adoptee From Korea and Breaks the Silence About the Dark Sides of Living in “a Random Family” Taekyung Tanja Inwol discusses her second feature documentary, which premiered at CPH:DOX, the challenges of being both filmmaker and protagonist, and her unusual but memorable visual choices.

Adult Adoptee Book Group 📚

Join us tonight for a discussion group created to support adult adoptees through open conversation, shared experiences, and community. Discussions will center around sections of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 and explore topics related to adoption, relinquishment, identity, and healing.

🗓️ Thursday, May 21st, 2026
⏱️ 6:30 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.
📍 Encompass Adoptees
122 S Terrace Ave, Columbus, OH

This group is facilitated by adult adoptees and offers a welcoming space for honest discussion, questions, and connection. Feel free to bring dinner or a snack.
RSVP appreciated but not required.

To find more information, please visit https://www.encompassadoptees.org/events-list/adultadopteebookgroup1.

Adult Adoptee Book Group (In-Person) — Encompass Adoptees ABOUT : This is a 5-part casual discussion group meant to support adult adoptees. Conversations will revolve around a section of the book. We use books to help us cover a larger variety of topics related to adoption, to increase our knowledge and awareness of the information that is out there, and

Have you registered yet?
Please join us May 21st for a special online event with Dr. Liz DeBetta!!
8-9:30 pm Eastern (7 central/5 pacific--please note the time zone)
Open to everyone.
Free for AKA Members/ $12 for non-members
(scholarships are always available- email [email protected])
ABOUT THE EVENT: Adoption is often framed as an act of love, yet for many adoptees, that love is inextricably intertwined with loss. This session introduces un-m-othered as a way of naming the layered relational ruptures that shape the adoptee experience—between adoptees and first mothers, adoptive mothers, and within the self. Drawing on narrative, embodiment, and lived experience, this workshop explores how the absence of language sustains disconnection, and how reclaiming more honest, nuanced language can support integration, relational repair, and a shift from survival toward wholeness.

Why do so many adoptees become high achievers?

Why are so many of us driven, overfunctioning, perfectionistic, workaholic, hyper-independent, or constantly trying to prove our worth?

And what if some of the very things the world applauds in adoptees are actually rooted in survival?

Tonight on Adoptee Restoration, I’m sharing a deeply personal piece about trauma, overachievement, success, pain, and the hidden emotional cost many adoptees quietly carry underneath competence.

Read the post here: https://substack.com//note/p-198078347?r=1wedez&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

https://apnews.com/article/adopted-children-boarding-schools-treatment-investigation-e5d8dab2e4db1f2f4c5abbfaf0d97c52

Adopted and Locked Away: Kids promised 'forever homes' instead confined in for-profit institutions An Associated Press investigation finds that a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers has set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids.

Moving forward doesn't have to mean leaving everything behind.

As adoptees, we've been told to "let go" our whole lives. Let go of the questions. Let go of the anger. Let go of the loss and be grateful.

But that's not what this is about.

Real letting go doesn't erase what happened. It lets us decide what still gets a vote in our lives and what doesn't.

This month we're figuring out the difference. What needs to be released and what we're going to carry with us because it's part of our story.

Aprils topic: Letting Go and Moving Forward.
Join us Wednesday, May 14th, 7pm CST.
Every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
Register at our website or Eventbrite.

Peter Thurnwald, Nicole Bilderback, and Charlie Kersh to Star in Korean Adoptee Musical Beat Drives Me Peter Thurnwald, Nicole Bilderback, and Charlie Kersh join the cast of Beat Drives Me, a new musical dramedy about the Korean adoptee experience.

"A parliamentary report on adoption is calling for the creation of a national adoptee forum to shape policy and services – after most young people said society and government do not understand adoption...."

A parliamentary report on adoption is calling for the creation of a national adoptee forum to shape policy and services – after most young people said society and government do not understand adoption.