Transracial Adoptee Launches Support Platform for Adoptive Parents

When you Google the term “transracial adoption” (something I never knew existed until this interview), you’ll find this description: “The placement of a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. If you read further, the definition continues to say that, “In the United States these terms usually refer to the placement of children of color or children from another country with Caucasian adoptive parents”, hmmmmm….Makes you wanna think huh? If you scroll a little but further you’ll start seeing articles on, “Why is transracial adoption an issue”, and you’ll begin to see articles and statements from the NABSW (National Association of Black Social Workers) making the claim that, “NABSW opposes transracial adoption for two main reasons: (1) The Association claims that transracial adoption prevents black children from forming a strong racial identity, and (2) It prevents them from developing survival skills necessary to deal with a racist society“. While supporters of transracial adoption make the claim that, “Transracial adoption allows a child to grow up in a diverse home. The children experience people that differ from them, rather than growing up secluded and shielded from the outside world. And they interact with other races early on, which helps  prevent children from developing intolerance and bigotry in their future.

Whichever side of the aisle you end up on, whether its for or against transracial adoption one thing remains clear is that more needs to be done in this field of study. Which is why owner and CEO of Identity Learning Community Isaac Etter has decided to undertake this task of properly educating parents and caregivers of transracial foster and adoptive families. “We use technology to help adoptive and foster families, to parent better and support their children”, Etter says. “We have a community for foster and adoptive families where they get access to resources, webinars, and support groups to help them face the challenges they are facing”, Etter finishes.

Isaac Etter, who is a transracial adoptee himself, says that his own personal experiences along with hearing a plethora of similar stories, ignited him to start this business. “I’m adoptive myself. I grew up in a white home as a black man and my family wasn’t prepared to handle my racial identity or any of the challenges I had as an adoptive person. They did the best they could, but it was still a challenge for them to understand how to support me through certain things,” Isaac states. And that search for support is another reason why Isaac Etter started Identity Learning Community. “I found out through my consulting that my experience is very very common. I also found parents were having similar struggles with understanding the barriers their adoptive children face,” Etter proclaims. “With our mobile app, we want to create families and situations that are healthy for the child and trauma informed for the parents”, Isaac states proudly.

“From all the studies and stats we saw, we found that families really need that support element. They need to feel like someone is walking with them through this. We do children a disservice because we put them in homes with families that may not have the resources to support them culturally. We have a lot of bad outcomes in adoptive services. There was one study done at a jail, where 60,000 inmates were interviewed and the study found that 1 in 3 of those inmates were from adoptive services. Also, if you look at the stats about 30% to 50% of foster parents quit in the first year, and of the 130,000 adoptions a year in Pennsylvania, 3%-5% of those are “returned” back into the foster care system. The sad part is, there’s whole organizations strictly dedicated to getting kids back to placement, and sometimes those kids are returned simply because they don’t “fit in” with the family”, Etter says emphatically.

With the combination of tech and social justice Isaac Etter plans to reshape, renew, and refocus the adoptive/foster child welfare system. He wants to keep building out tech that will be the main tools adoptive and foster care agencies use for years to come. “We’re a content heavy platform, so we produce videos, webinars, and interviews with the support groups to help these families. We are totally geared towards the parents, and our goal is to offer support groups on a nightly basis so that we can get those foster parents with busy schedules. No matter what day of the week, they can log into the app, and access the support group. We record all trainings and all webinars and already have about 20 hours worth of content available as a catalog for parents,” Etter says with a grin.

And with fundraising efforts currently underway for Etter and his team, he has a bright outlook for his company that is coming up on its annual anniversary. “If we can help parents with our resources, that’ll help their child with their identity”, Isaac finishes.