Hope for families seeking kin

Page 10

The Adoption Search and Reunion program was instituted by the Metis Child and Family Services Society in Edmonton on Oct. 1 to help reunite adopted children and their birth families.

The 16-year-old society is now a licensed adoption search agency, approved by Alberta Children's Services.

Florence Gaucher, a social worker with 27 years' experience, is program director. She will be the only employee, as the program is not funded by government. The society charges a fee for service, unlike the provincial post-adoption registry, which does not charge to reunite two or more family members who have put their names on the provincial registry.

Not everyone being sought by family members is on the registry list, however. That's where Gaucher can help.

Gaucher prepared for her new role by taking four months of "mentorship and training" at the registry.

She will conduct a search on behalf of an adult adopted person, birth parent, birth sibling, adopted child aged 16 to 18 who lives independently, an adoptive parent or guardian on behalf of a minor, or a descendant of an adopted person. She can also look for a biological relative of a birth parent who has died.

"We have a lot of adoptees who are registered there who are searching for their families," she said, "and vice versa-some mothers that are registered that are looking for adoptees."

Adoption centre rules say both parties have to be registered before an agency may help to arrange a reunion for them.

"Almost every Native family has had the experience of either having a brother or sister or cousin who has been adopted out, because no one ever knows.

The program is not limited to Alberta, but Gaucher cautioned that the only reunions that she can facilitate are for those children who were adopted in Alberta.

But if someone were doing a search in another province, "I could at least recommend that search agency (there), so they can go ahead with the reunion from that province." Wherever an adoption is finalized is the location where identifying information is stored.

There are seven or eight agencies in Alberta, but this is the first time the provincial government has given the program to a Native agency.

Once a person is found they have the choice whether to consent to a reunion or not.