Time: 6:00 pm– 8:00 pm
Featured topic: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
About Adoption, but Were Afraid to Ask
Speaker: Maris H. Blechner, M Ed LCSW,
Maris is an adoptive and birth parent, an educator, a
social worker, and a nationally respected speaker and
trainer on child welfare issues. She has more than 31
years of professional experience in public adoption.
Maris was one of the founders of Family Focus Adoption
Services, the high energy level NY State adoption
agency that she has directed for the last 24 years. She
has been the Vice President of the North American
Council on Adoptable Children and the NY State
Adoption Action Network and is a Board member
emeritus of NY State APC. She also sits on a variety of
work groups dealing with the improvement of
adoption. Most importantly, Maris defines herself as a
child advocate, well trained in grass roots community
activism.
