Bari offers a course on adoption to prospective couples

There is much to learn and know before taking such a step

Earlier this week, the House of Parenthood in Bari started offering specialized courses to 30 adoptive couples from the municipality who would like to take the step or have already taken the step to increase their families in this way. The House is an institution jointly run by the Municipal Welfare Department of the southern Italian city in collaboration with family-oriented non-profits.

The aim of the course is to strengthen the ability of adoptive parents to cope with the new changes and the challenges that the administrative procedures can pose. The course itself is provided for free and it will run until the month of June.

Reducing the stress inherent in the arduous adoption process

The meetings between the parenthood consultants and the families are taking place every Tuesday between 6 pm and 7 pm online. The course has been designed to feature simulations, roleplaying and listening to testimonies from other families with the goal to encourage reflections and understanding of the dynamic between an adoptive parent and a child. This is expected to lead to the construction of a remedial relationship between both sides that would counteract the deprivation and traumatic experiences that the child may have gone through.

“A child in an adoptive family needs over 1000 days to be able to deconstruct and reorganize his life,” explained Francesca Bottalico, the local Welfare Councilor. “In the same way, an adoptive family is called to change and adapt to better accommodate the child. Becoming adoptive parents is a long process of transformation that requires an essential maturation process to integrate the dream of adoption with the adoptive reality and concretely promote the well-being of the entire family unit”.

The project is managed by the Mama Happy association, born from the many years of experience of professionals in developmental psychology and family relationships and from the union of a large network of families. Its aim is to promote valid and conscious parenting through awareness-raising and accompaniment in the context of national and international adoption and foster care standards.