CONFERENCE ON ADOPTION SLATED IN NOVEMBER

A two-day conference, "Adoption: Issues and Insights," will be held Nov. 12-13 in Cape Girardeau.

The conference will be held from 7-9:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Centenary Methodist Church Hall, 300 N. Ellis, and from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Show Me Center.

Barbara Tremitiere is the featured speaker. She is the former director of Tressler Lutheran Services Adoption Program, which since 1971, specialized in the adoptive placement of children with special needs.

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, Tremitiere received in 1984 the Distinguished Alumni Award for Practice, recognizing her innovative work in the adoption field. Since 1977, she has served as a consultant and trainer for numerous public and voluntary child welfare agencies, state child welfare programs and universities throughout the United States and Canada.

Tremitiere's workshops have been attended by several thousand child welfare professionals, adoptive and foster parents, adult adoptees, therapists, teachers, criminal justice officials and others.

She has been a member of the sociology faculty at York College of Pennsylvania for 17 years and has authored several articles on timely child welfare issues.

As a parent of 15 children (12 adopted), Tremitiere has gained many of her insights through the challenge of parenting children with special needs and gifts.

Birthparents, prospective adoptive parents, adoptive families and their extended families and professionals who work with adoption are invited to attend the conference. Registration is $25 for professionals, $30 per couple for foster or adoptive parents, and $10 for students.

Seminar topics include: parenting skills; "Genetics The Part You Never Met;" management of loss, separation and grief; and therapeutic parenting skills.

The conference is sponsored by the Child Abuse and Neglect Council of Cape Girardeau, Lutheran Family Services of Southeast Missouri, The Adoptive Family Group, The Department of Human Environmental Studies of the Work and Family Institute and the Department of Social Work at Southeast Missouri State University.

For additional information, or to register for the conference, call (314) 334-5866.