This is day 29 of National Adoption Awareness Month, so this is my daily post to amplify the voices of adoptees..

Adoptee Voices Rising is “an adoptee-led, social justice group that advocates for the adoptee community through political engagement and legislation.” The group is relatively new on the scene, though the leaders have a well-established presence in the adoptee community.

AVR is reaching out to the adoptee community to see what issues are of most interest. Here is a link to their survey, with apologies: the deadline is November 30 to return it. Adoptees: please fill it out!

According to their Instagram page, they are tracking and acting on issues such as original birth certificates and post-adoption services. Another important focus is adoptee citizenship. They are among the groups partnering with the Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship.

AAC is “a coalition of organizations dedicated to passage of the 2021 Adoptee Citizenship Act in the 117th Congress (H.R. 1593 & S967). Our network is made up of a diverse group of adoptees, adoptive families, grassroots organizing and advocacy groups, and allies—all of whom are working together to amend a technical oversight in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. This oversight has resulted in the exclusion of thousands of intercountry adoptees from rightfully receiving automatic citizenship as legally adopted children.” Please take a look at their website, and support citizenship for all international adoptees.

You can follow Adoptee Voices Rising on Facebook, Insta, and Twitter. I don’t know if their name is a reference to the phoenix, that strong Egyptian-mythical bird that rises from the ashes to resurrection, and whose tears have life-saving powers. I can see it as a metaphor in adoption community work. In any case, let’s those adoptee voices rising.