ASAP currently coordinates several Adoptive Family Support Group meetings across Tennessee, with more groups in more communities launching soon. Meetings are designed to provide families with educational and recreational opportunities that help them develop supportive relationships with other adoptive families in their communities.

Adoptive family support groups can help families share, understand, and manage the complexities of parenting a special needs child. Whether providing general support, empathic listening and understanding, or specific advice, adoptive family support groups help families stay in touch with the hope adoption brought into their lives, as well as the challenges.

Children benefit from knowing other children who have been adopted and their parents. They can share their feelings and concerns about being adopted, about their birth parents and past experiences, and about their cultural heritages if they were adopted from foreign countries.

Adoptive family groups give waiting families the opportunity to gain a more in-depth, realistic understanding of adoption and enable them to hear first-hand about successes and problems they may encounter.

2010 ASAP Support Group Schedule