Adoption and Permanency Planning

Geographic Level: Province

Province: NT

This is a topic where hope, stability, and belonging meet bureaucracy, emotion, and a whole lot of paperwork—but at the end of the day, it’s about finding every child a place to call home.

Topics

Forever Families in Fiction and Film (2 discussions)
How adoption is portrayed in media—what gets it right, what harms, and what stories still need telling.
Indigenous-Led Permanency and Customary Care (2 discussions)
Discussions on cultural continuity, self-determination, and Indigenous frameworks for keeping children connected to their communities.
Navigating Open Adoption and Birth Family Relationships (2 discussions)
Honest conversations about contact agreements, family dynamics, grief, and healing across all sides.
Paths to Permanency (2 discussions)
Explore and compare adoption, kinship care, guardianship, customary care, and reunification—what they mean, and who they serve best.
Post-Adoption and Guardianship Support (2 discussions)
Where to find help after placement—counselling, cultural support, respite, education, and peer networks.
Reform and Red Tape: Fixing the Process (2 discussions)
Talk advocacy, policy change, and how to streamline the system while keeping kids’ safety front and center.
The Adoption Journey: From Interest to Placement (2 discussions)
A step-by-step space for prospective adoptive parents to ask questions, share timelines, and support one another.
Voices of Lived Experience (2 discussions)
Stories and lessons from adoptive parents, former youth in care, kinship caregivers, and birth families.
Youth Perspectives on Permanency (3 discussions)
A forum for current and former youth in care to share what permanency means to them, and how to ensure their voices are heard in planning.
Adopting Teens, Siblings, and Kids with Complex Needs (2 discussions)
Challenges and success stories around finding forever homes for youth who often wait the longest.