What is Parent Finders Montréal?
What is Parent Finders Montréal?
Parent Finders Montréal (PFMTL) is a non-profit, volunteer-run support group and private registry for all members of the Adoption Circle (or, Adoption Triad: adoptees, birth family members, and adoptive family members) over 18 years of age. We promote the reunion of family members separated by adoption by providing information and support to those who are seeking reunion. We are not a search service, but we'll try to guide you in your search.
Parent Finders chapters can be found across Canada. PFMTL serves local and out-of-province members whose search begins in, or leads to, Greater Montréal or the province of Québec.
Our mandate includes working to promote more open federal, provincial and municipal adoption legislation and disclosure policies.
As a volunteer-run group, naturally our efforts and success rate depend greatly upon how large, and how active our membership is in volunteering their time and efforts.
Parent Finders Montréal maintains its own information database and shares this information with other Parent Finder groups and affiliates, such as the Head Office in Vancouver, CANADopt, and the Canadian Adoptees Registry Inc. We hold monthly information and support meetings, and maintain this Web site. Members and volunteers support other members in their search process, and can contribute to the Web site, do research at local libraries and archives, etc. We help members at all stages of search, reunion, and post-reunion.
Moreover, we act as a resource and support base for those whose search lies within Montréal and the province of Québec.
Note as of March 29, 2000:
Due to our small active volunteer membership (3 dedicated volunteers who do the work of 30 between job and family), we are currently unable to take on most research requests, although we can refer to you to persons who may help you. We need active members or volunteers right now (see Volunteering with PFMTL, below), besides, what else did you have planned for this Spring, anyway? Contact us PFMTL.
Current legislation in Québec ensures that searches involving Québec-born children and birth families is a distinct experience. Non-identifying background information may be legally available, but it's not readily accessible. Many have waited up to ten years to receive that basic information, or are still waiting. Dossiers remain locked up at social agencies due to several factors: under-staffing due to cutbacks, and sometimes deliberately uncooperative attitudes from the agency. PFMTL tries to help members through bureaucratic mazes, and we support changes to legislation which will help, not prevent, Adoption Circle members to obtain information which is their legal right -- and birthright.
The membership fee is $40.00 (Can.) for 12 months. As we no longer have the human resources to put out a newsletter and mailout, our $20.00 annual renewal fee has been suspended, unless the situation changes. Members receive the services listed above (see What We Do), however we encourage them to come to the meetings for longer conversations, or to ask us to put them in contact with telephone buddies (see below) who can give them this kind of support. Additional services include using the PFMTL address, email address or phone number if placing ads in newspapers, and experienced mediation when contacting or reuniting with a birth relative. To receive a membership form you may either contact us at the coordinates below, or you can print out the form.
Address:
Parent Finders Montréal
190 Davignon
Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Québec
Canada H9B 1Y5Phone: (514) 683-0204 (long-distance calls are returned collect)
Fax: (514) 685 -7384For more information also contact Pat Danielson - Registrar
Some PFMTL members offer their time as telephone support buddies-- please contact us by phone, email or fax for current telephone numbers and availabilities.
Meetings:
Meetings are held at 7:30 PM on the third Thursday of every month at Concordia University, Loyola Campus, 2496 West Broadway, at Belmore House (Campus Ministry bldg.). Meetings are open to the public. Please contact us a couple of days beforehand to confirm the location.
Volunteering
for Parent Finders Montréal
PFMTL is completely volunteer-run, and needs people to help keep connections happening. Since 77% of our members live outside Québec, we really do need the help. Any contribution you can make could help someone in their search. If you can volunteer your time on a long- or short-term basis, please call at (514) 683-0204 or email us. We need people to do research at libraries and archives, act as pre-and post-reunion support, compile and write items for the Web site, as well as do information searches on the Internet, etcetera.
Please note that for reasons of confidentiality that we do not accept offers to help type entries into our private database.
Note as of March 29, 2000:
We may seem bigger with this Web site, but in reality, we're a small core of about 3 active volunteers who seem to miraculously accomplish work for 30 (or more!), outside of our own jobs and families. We'd welcome someone (local) who would like to put together a PFMTL newsletter. We very much need clerical and research help right now, to clear up a backlog of requests, especially those from out-of-province. If yours is one of those requests, please be patient; you may also become an active member, or ask a friend in the area to get involved on your behalf. If you are not local, but would like to volunteer to do look-ups in your area, let us know.
Parent Finders (Canada) began as a volunteer-run organization in Vancouver, B.C. in August 1974, to provide a support group for adult adoptees, birth relatives and adopting parents. Today, Parent Finders groups are active in most Canadian provinces. We also maintain strong ties with adoption activist groups throughout the United States, England and Australia.
The primary aim of Parent Finders is to promote a feeling of openess and understanding about the whole concept of adoption.
Services include:
- General counselling
- Direction on where to obtain background information
- Assistance in search
- Providing, where requested, skilled intermediaries to make a discreet first contact to the party being sought
- Maintaining the Canadian Adoption Reunion Register (CARR) wherein birth information can be confidentially filed.
The National Office coordinates the overall work of the groups, and lobbies provincial social service departments. Each Parent Finders Group operates autonomously through its own volunteer executive, serving the needs of its local members. Copies of each member's birth information are forwarded to CARR to be entered in the Reunion Register. Registrations are entered in the computer by birth date and cross-referenced by birth name, where known. When a match occurs the group leaders are advised so that they can assist their member to facilitate the most efficient reunion. The results of the reunion are forwarded to CARR for tabulation.
This Montréal branch of Parent Finders began in August 1995 to help fill the need of a support group within the English community. At that time the Mouvement Retrouvailles, which serves members of the French-speaking community, had been the region's main support organization. PFMTL hopes to serve everyone regardless of language. Although our constituencies are linguistically different, our goals are similar, and perhaps in the future we can work together to serve Adoptees, Birth Relatives, Birth Siblings and Fostered Adults searching for their biological roots.
All members of Parent Finders Montréal are also registered online with the Canadian Adoptees Registry Inc. (Rick & Alice MacDonald) on the Internet.
© 1998-2001 Parent Finders Montréal
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