About Origins-USA, Inc.
Origins-USA, a national tax-exempt non-profit organization, is THE Voice of Mothers. Origins-USA is working to protect the natural right of mothers to nurture their children. Origins-USA envisions a society where mothers receive the support they need to nurture their children. If mothers and children cannot remain together, children should be provided stable living arrangements that honor and maintain their connection to their natural families. Origins-USA (also known as OriginsUSA, Origins-USA.org, and OUSA) is not affiliated with any other group, organization, or entity.
Origins-USA Mission
Protecting the natural right of mothers to nurture their children.
Origins-USA Vision
Every mother receives the support she needs to nurture her children.
Mothers and children are separated only after all efforts to keep them together have been exhausted.
Children separated from their mothers shall be provided stable living arrangements that honor and maintain their connection to their family.
What is Origins-USA Doing?
Origins-USA is increasing public awareness of the negative effects of adoption and the benefits of placement with relatives and guardianship when children cannot remain in their own homes. Origins-USA is promoting legislatuion assuring that women considering adoption for their children have unbiased counseling, complete information, and adequate time to decide.
Highlights of Origins-USA's Work
2009
Services to Members:
Provided support and advice to mothers who lost children to adoption who contacted Origins-USA for help
Published Origins-USA's newsletter, Mothers in Action
Updated Origins-USA's books and movies list
Collected and posted links to members' websites, blogs, and videos
Switched costs by switching to a free conference telephone line for Board meetings
Education & Outreach:
Origins-USA's comments on "Shotgun Adoption" about crisis pregnancy centers were published in The Nation magazine online and in print.
Developed an educational video about the effects of adoption separation and the need to protect mothers' rights and help keep families together with volunteer producer Sara Aderhold and generous contriubtions from members.
Expanded the Mothers' Stories Project
Completed Position Papers on Fundamental Parental Rights and Family Preservation, Discrimination, Indepdent Legal Counsel, International Adoption, and Marketing of Human Eggs.
Recruited parents for MTV show on parents separated from their children
Board members Kathy Aderhold and Mirah Riben and members Suz Bednarz and Margie Perscheidl conducted workshops at the American Adoption Congress (AAC) national conference in Clevenland, Ohio
President Bernadette Wright will attend the Adoption Law Institute on Dec 18 in New York City with a full scholarship as representative of Origins-USA
Increased membership on Origins-USA MySpace and Facebook pages
Increased HUGS volunteers
Reviewed and edited website
2008
Services to members:
Initiated HUGS (Helping "U" Get Support), with volunteers supporting mothers seeking help in dealing with adoption issues, and the Mothers' Stories project, posting mothers' stories on the Origins-USA website.
Published Mothers in Action newsletter
Education & Outreach:
Developed and published Origins-USA's Journalists' Guide to Accurate and Honest Adoption Language
Countered the positive view of adoption presented in the movie Juno through comments by Board member Mirah Riben in the Chicago Tribune and a letter in the Lawrence, Kansas Journal by member Karen Dawber
Hosted a RegDay site, providing information about how to register for the ISSR search registry
President Bernadette Wright appeared twice on Donna Montalbano's "Speaking of Adoption" radio show
Letters supporting adoptees' and mothers' rights to original birth certificates and denying that mothers were promised "privacy" published in the Asbury Park Press and on the USAToday website
Recruited a professional graphics artist through VolunteerMatch to re-design Origins-USA's brochure at no cost
Letter published in the Portland Oregonian supporting the right of a Mexican grandmother to custody of her grandson
2007
Services to Members:
Incorporated Origins-USA as a non-profit corporation and obtained tax-exempt status from the IRS. Adopted mission statement and wrote bylaws.
Orchestrated "Blogger Blitz" to Bring Baby Evelyn Home
Helped reunite a mother with her two sons separated nearly three decades: Jani Anderson, who surrendered a daughter and two sons for adoption, visited the adoption agency and was told that her daughter had died at six months of SIDS but not given any other information about her daughter. Origins-USA read about Anderson's plight and wrote a press release declaring support for her efforts to sue the agency to open the records about her daughter. The press release was seen by a man who believed he was Anderson's oldest son. He contacted Origins-USA who in turn contacted Anderson. That very day Anderson met her eldest son, now 30 years old. Anderson was also quickly reunited with his brother who had been placed with the same adoptive family.
Education & Outreach:
Created Motherhood, Adoption, Surrender & Loss video
Surveyed 214 mothers who lost children to adoption between 1956 and 2003; published findings in Mothers' Voices
Board members and members participated in national Adoption Ethics Conference, Oct 15-16, 2007, in Crystal City, Virginia
Created website
Began Mothers in Action newsletter
Hosted eight RegDay sites
Board member Bernadette Wright appeared on The Adoption Show, discussing Mothers' Voices
Wright also appeared on Donna Montalbano's "Speaking of Adoption" radio show
Board member Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy's work for Origins-USA and adoption reform featured in the Woodstock Times (New York)
Board member Mirah Riben's and member Kristen Petela's work with with Origins-USA to support RegDay featured in two articles in The North Brunswick/South Brunswick Sentinel (New York)
Board member Sandy Young and her RegDay site featured in the Hondo Anvil Herald (Texas)
The Oklahoman publishes a letter from Origins-USA President Bernadette Wright describing Origins-USA's familiarity with the harm of adoption separation and work to prevent such tragedies, in response to a story about a mother who grieved in silence after surrendering her son
The Portland Oregonian publishes letter from Origins-USA Present criticizing the State of Oregon for leaving a boy in foster care for nearly two years rather than reunited him with his extended family.
Page updated 11/12/09