The American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys will host their first Family Building Expo in Philadelphia this month.
The expo, which is free, offers prospective adoptive parents the chance to meet and greet people who work in the family-building field, including private and state adoption agencies, leaders of support groups, adoption specialists and attorneys.
Adoption attorney and AAAA member Peter J. Wiernicki said the expo aims to be inclusive of all families and individuals and is welcoming to the LGBT community.
“It is an expo that is for everyone but certainly the LGBT community is well-encompassed in all of this,” he said.
Wiernicki said there will be workshops on family building, adoption and reproductive technologies.
“People want objective and practical information and this is something the Academy thought would be really awesome,” he said. “There was a real desire to give back and begin a tradition of having these expos in different cities to have a variety of resources.”
Wiernicki said it was important to get information out to prospective parents, especially because of varying state adoption laws.
“A lot of these laws vary from state to state,” he said. “We wanted to bring professionals together and provide information. I’ve been an adoption lawyer for 30 years and I’ve noticed that people love to get together to hear objective information.”
Wiernicki said individuals interested in the expo do not have to RSVP to the event to protect their privacy.
“A lot of people who attend these kinds of conversations are concerned about their privacy and just want to go and get information and not feel pressured,” he said. “From my own experience, it is important for people to get objective information about family building and all of the options that are out there. People are hungry for and excited to have that information at their fingertips.”
The Family Building Expo will run 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Four Seasons Hotel, One Logan Square. For more information, visit www.adoptionattorneys.org.