Mission
Asian Adult Adoptees of Washington (AAAW) strives to enable adoptees to connect, share their stories and perspectives with each other, empower adoptees to explore their adoptee identity, serve as a resource for adoptees, and support adoptees wherever they are in their journey.
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AAAW would like to start focusing on more family-friendly events as our organization's members are aging and families are growing. In addition, we want to collaborate more with adoptees on an individual and organization basis. There has been a growing call from our community to interact more with BIPOC adoptees, so we have been working on relationships with adoptee organizations like AIRERoots and BIPOC Adoptees. Unfortunately, our board is small and we'd like to ramp that back up as the pandemic has subsided.
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Our organization has a Board of Directors, an advisory board, volunteers for the Adoptee Mentorship Program, and an Event Planning Committee. The Board Members include Allison Porter who is our Vice President and Secretary, Matt Durkee who is a General Board Member, and Chris Carr who is the President and Treasurer. Jenny Kelly and Sarah Kim Park make up our advisory board as they served on the board as President.
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AAAW has a monthly program with its monthly dinners that rotate on a monthly basis. We also have quarterly events, a Spring Potluck, Summer BBQ, and Holiday Party. Our organization also hosts a Dialogue Series for adoptees only. This is a safe-space for discussion for adoptees to talk and share their experiences/perspectives on different topics. AAAW also has a cultural enrichment grant to offer adoptees from our community should they wish to have financial assistance for cultural things (e.g., language classes) or if they want to attend an adoptee conference. Lastly, AAAW has a mentorship program called Adoptee Mentorship Program. However, due to lower numbers of youth adoptees and volunteer bandwidth, we are closing this program at the end of June. It has been successful in bringing youth adoptees together and learning about their adoptee identity, giving them a chance to learn from adult adoptees about possible experiences they may encounter as they grow into adulthood. Our mentorship program also had parent workshops where adult adoptees sat on a panel and answered questions from adoptive parents should they seek advice on how to help their adopted child(ren).
Instagram: @aaa_washington
Facebook (public page): https://www.facebook.com/aaawash
Facebook (closed group - answer verification questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aaawashington