Empowering Transracial Adoptive Families: Tackling Racism in the Media

Empowering Transracial Adoptive Families: Tackling Racism in the Media

and its Impact on Adolescent Identity

This training will address the challenges that youth and families encounter in transracial adoption that can arise from exposure to pervasive racist behaviors, xenophobic statements and microaggressions that we see and hear daily in the news and other public media. The influence of controversial racist messages can have an especially negative impact on the members of transracial adoptive families and their relationships causing conflict, uncertainty and ambivalence. Typical struggles with identity formation, self-esteem and sense of belonging particularly for transracially adopted youth can become even more magnified from continued exposure to the implicit and explicit racist content being blasted on social media. The emotional weight of this can be overwhelming to youth and their families.

How can transracial families tackle these emotionally laden issues constructively especially with their adolescent children and what can we as adoption competent mental health professionals and child welfare social workers do to support the wellbeing of youth and their transracial families?

Training methods will include use of news stories and media posts, videos, power point, case examples and interactive dialogue with the audience to discuss real life situations. This process will guide participants to understanding the factors impinging on transracial families and adolescent identity formation imposed by racism in social media and develop strategies for minimizing the negative effects upon their families.

Mary Harris Miller LCSW

Mary Harris Miller is a welfare consultant, trainer and therapist specializing in the continuum of pre/post permanency support and services in the state of Connecticut and nationally. Mary has over 30 years of experience in child mental health and child welfare practice. Mary graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and received her Master’s in Social Work from University of CT. She started her professional Social Work career at Yale New Haven Hospital’s Children’s Psychiatric Inpatient Services where she worked with children effected by psychiatric disorders for ten years. Mary was afterward employed by Casey Family Services in Bridgeport, Connecticut for eighteen years prior to its closing in 2013. While at Casey, as the Team Leader, Mary was instrumental in the development and implementation of a comprehensive post adoption service model. She provided national consultation, professional development and parent training through the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice Center.

Mary has extensive leadership experience in the development and implementation of a comprehensives pre- and post- adoption service model, clinical supervision, and practice/ program management. She has responded to local, national and international consulting and training requests for parents and professionals, to address pre and post adoption service needs. She has been a strong advocate for communities to have access to knowledgeable and skilled professionals that can offer appropriate supports and resources in order to deliver quality permanency services to diverse parents, children and families.

Mary has served on a federal and a national grant review panel that seeks to advance and strengthen professional development and improve and sustain permanency outcomes for vulnerable children and families. Mary is an academic advisor for the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) grant. This federal grant partnership with the University of Connecticut School of Social work and Connecticut Department of Children and Families is dedicated to promoting excellence in effective child welfare practice and leadership development. Mary had provided MSW students with clinical supervision and oversight of their DCF internship. She has also been an instructor for the Training in Adoption Competence Certificate Program for mental health practitioners (TAC). This evidence based national curriculum training is a collaboration of the Center for Adoption Support (C.A.S.E), CT. Department of Children and Families and UConn School of Social Work to increase adoption competent practitioners in the state of Connecticut.

Over the years, Mary forged a number of professional partnerships with state and private agencies to provide training, consulting, coaching and peer to peer collaboration. Mary was a consultant at the Institute of Professional Practice Inc., focusing on practice change geared toward the implementation of a Permanency Teaming Model, professional/parent training, program development, and clinical supervision.

In 2013, Mary began her private practice as an independent Connecticut Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and currently continues to provide clinical services to children and families, professional consultation services, and parent training and development. Her ongoing commitment and dedication as a supportive therapeutic partner with children and families is grounded in Family System and Strengths perspectives. Throughout her career, Mary has remained steadfast in addressing the continuum of permanency focused services and professional practice, that support strengthen and maintain permanency outcomes for children and families.

Host or Publisher Connecticut Council on Adoption