Forever Families Weekend – for Jewish Families Touched by Adoption
The NJ Y Camps has opened registration for the seventh annual Forever Families Weekend, a family weekend experience for Jewish families touched by adoption. The program will run from June 5-7, 2015.
Families will have the opportunity to think consciously about their roles in both the Jewish community and the adoption community while enjoying a weekend at one of the largest Jewish summer camps in North America.
Since 1960, the Center for Jewish Family Life at the NJ Y Camps has provided top-rated programs for people looking for family fun and the chance to meet new people. Parents will have the option to participate in workshops such as Children’s Books and Stories of Adoption, Identity Issues for Adoptees Approaching Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Acceptance of Transracial Families in the Jewish Community, and Jewish, LGBT, and Parenting by Adoption while their children participate in age-appropriate activities including skill-building workshops aimed at teaching children how to respond to comments and questions about adoption.
Adoption-specific workshops will be facilitated by Forever Families Weekend Founder/Director and 2010 Angel in Adoption Award winner Debbie Schwartz, along with other adoption professionals who will share their experiences as members of Jewish adoptive families, including Maris Blechner, Executive Director Emerita of Family Focus Adoption Services, Lisa Schuman, LCSW, Director of Adoption Cooperative Consultants and Director of Mental Health Services for Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut, and Deb Shrier, Director, Community Program and Development at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Worcester, Massachusetts.
NJ Y Camps, which has been running Jewish summer camps for more than 90 years, will provide space and programming support. Participants will be able to take full advantage of the NJY facilities, including the high and low ropes adventure courses, boating, swimming, arts and crafts, athletics, and much more. All meals at the camp are kosher and optional Shabbat services will be offered on both Friday evening and Saturday morning.
The all-inclusive program costs $275 per adult. Children attend free of charge. (Limited camperships are available for families who require financial assistance to attend.)
Forever Families Weekend will take place at Camps Cedar Lake and Nah-Jee-Wah in Milford, Pennsylvania.
For more information about this program, or to receive Forever Families literature, please contact Debbie Schwartz at (914) 656-5308 or pr@njycamps.org. A downloadable flyer describing the program can be accessed at http://njycamps.org/families/NJY_flyer.pdf. The camp webpage is located at http://njycamps.org/families/html/forever_families.html.
For more information: contact Debbie Schwartz
(914) 656-5308
pr@njycamps.org
