Author: Tam Cane
Author title: School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex, UK
Description: Birth parents (also known as first parents or first family) play a crucial role in maintaining cultural connections for children adopted transracially, particularly for Black children who often experience identity confusion and cultural displacement. Birth parents remain essential in providing accurate identity information during pre and post adoption contact. However, Black parents report limited opportunities to support cultural continuity, attributing this to systemic racism and social workers’ lack of confidence to discuss race, ethnicity, and heritage before adoption completion.TheShEP(Support, Humility, Engage, and Provision) approach aims to support professionals in implementing relational, race-trauma-informed approaches during adoption procedures.

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