Adoption East Midlands

💚 Thinking About Adoption? We’d Love to Meet You! 💚
Come along to the Nottingham Cultural Festival
🤝Meet our friendly team, ask questions, and learn more about the rewarding journey of adoption 💚
📍 Forest Recreation Ground, Nottingham
Gregory Blvd, Nottingham NG7
🌙Sunday 26 July 2026
⏰ 12pm – 5pm
Every child deserves a loving home 💚

Only 3 days to go before our debut launch party for ‘The Book of Belonging’ at Nottingham Poetry Festival!

Come celebrate with us at Fisher Gate Point on the 14th of June between 5.00 pm and 6.30 pm, where you can hear from our resident author Jay Sandhu reading his poetry, as well as our amazing contributors. There’s space for anyone to sign up on the day to read their poems, so come along and put your name down!

We’ll be selling ‘The Book of Belonging’ at the event for £5.00 per booklet if you’d like to purchase a copy.

Please note there has been some promotional material stating that the event is the 5th of June; however, the correct date is the 14th of June.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Only five days to go until Adoption East Midlands book launch for ‘The Book of Belonging’ at The Nottingham Poetry Festival! The event is completely free to attend and everyone is welcome to come and listen to our contributors and also perform their work.

We’re at Fisher Gate Point on the 14th of June between 5.00 pm and 6.30 pm and sign up is on the day if you’d like to read one of your poems to the audience.

On our socials today we’ve got one of our poets, Christopher, who’s sharing his wonderful poem ‘This Life of Mine’:

I’m still young they say
as my life slips away,
I fear who I will meet
An icon or defeat?
They say these fears are silly
as it’s only half past three,
but I can’t help but think
what ever will happen to me?

I’m still young they say
yet my life fades away,
it’s no longer half past three
and I wonder who is judging me?
They say don’t fear the Styx
as it’s only half past six,
but I can’t help but think
has my judgement been fixed?

I’m still young they say
yet my life dwindles away,
it’s no longer half past six
how does life move so quick?
They say don’t fear the divine
as it’s only half past nine,
but I can’t help but think
is my wasted life a crime?

I’m no longer young they say
my life has slipped away,
it’s no longer half past nine
so now I pray at my shrine,
as midnight bells now ring
for this wasted life of mine,
but I can’t help but think
what more could I have tried?

Our joint sessions with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) will be running again in July, September and December! 🤩

These sessions aim to support parents with thinking about their concerns in relation to their child’s current presentation using a trauma informed approach. The following topics will be covered 👇

🌟 Developmental trauma and emotional wellbeing taking place on Friday 10 July 2026
🌟 The overlap between neuro development and developmental trauma taking place on Tuesday 15 September 2026
🌟 Understanding self-harming behaviours and how to support a child taking place on Friday 4 December 2026

Each session will be facilitated by a CAMHS worker and therapeutic adoption support social worker and will be held online via Microsoft Teams. 💚 Check out our Hub for further information 👉 https://www.adoptioneastmidlands.org.uk/adopters/learning-and-development/early-interventions/

Pop by and say hello at Pride this summer 🌈💚 whatever stage you’re at in your adoption journey... we’d love to chat 😊💬

Saturday 13 June, 12 until 6pm, Chesterfield Pride, Stand Road Park, S41 8SW
Saturday 27 June, 12 until 6pm, Pride in the Peaks, Hall Leys Park, Matlock, DE4 3SX
Saturday 25th July 12 until 5pm, Nottingham Pride, Sneinton Market, Nottingham
Saturday 12th September 12-6pm Derby Pride, Markeaton Park, DE22 4NH

‘The Book of Belonging’ is going to the press this week as we prepare for our exciting debut at The Nottingham Poetry Festival for our themed collection on ‘home and belonging’!

Today we’ve got Anya on our socials sharing her fantastic poem all about ‘finding bricks in the unlikeliest of places’:

I'm trying to build a house around me
but the walls keep tumbling down
the cement doesn't stick
I don't have enough bricks
and I'm building on unsteady ground.
I thought hope would keep me going
perched in my soul
but it seems hope has shed her feathers
and forgot to fly me home.

I search for parts everywhere
like a bird seeking twigs for a nest.
I find bricks in the unlikeliest of places
in people I’d never have guessed

Sometimes I forget the word for Myself
torn between two worlds.
sometimes I forget I ever felt
closer to saris than miniskirts.

There are things I used to know
people I used to be
yet somehow I seem to have lost all that
an escaped identity

and I stand between beams
in my half constructed house
looking at the bricks I've collected
moments, uncorrected
by the sandpaper that threatens
to erase what's mine
pieces of my past
their future undefined.

maybe my house was never meant to be
finished by the time I'm 25.
all these bricks contain
a fragment of my life
how can I force an end
onto a life I've not yet lived?
I don't know where I'm going
but I know when I'm finished
there'll be a home waiting for me
built on the people I love
and maybe that's all that home is
maybe that's enough.

Remember to join us on the 14th of June at Fisher Gate Point between 5.00 pm and 6.30 pm to hear from our contributors and celebrate the launch of ‘The Book of Belonging’. Sign-ups are open on the day to put your name down to perform.

Please note there has been some promotional material stating that the event is the 5th of June; however, the correct date is the 14th of June.

Everyone is welcome and we can’t wait to see you there!

💚 Thinking about adoption? 💚
There are children across the East Midlands waiting for a safe, loving home — and that home could be with you 🏡
You don’t have to be perfect — just open-hearted and ready to make a difference 💚 We’ll support you every step of the way 🌱
✨ Come and meet us at one of our upcoming events:
📍 Thursday 4 June, 10am–2pm
Buxton Pavilion Market, Buxton Park, John’s Road, Buxton, SK17 6BE
📍 Saturday 6 June, 11am–6pm
Belper Goes Green Festival, Belper Cricket Club, Long Row, Belper, DE56
📍 Sunday 7 June, 11am–5pm
The Big 1 at Chaddesden Park, Maine Drive, Chaddesden, Derby, DE21 6LA
📍 Saturday 13 June, 11am–6pm
Chesterfield Pride, Stand Road Park, Chesterfield, S41 8SW 🏳️‍🌈
📍 Sunday 14 June, 5pm–6:30pm
Nottingham Poetry Festival – ‘The Book of Belonging’ Launch Party 📚
Fisher Gate Point, 1 Fisher Gate, Nottingham, NG1 1GD
📍 Saturday 27 June, 12–6pm
Pride in the Peaks, Hall Leys Park, Matlock, DE4 3SX 🏳️‍🌈
💬 Come along for a chat — no pressure, just a chance to explore if adoption could be right for you 💚

Heading south to that London after a day with the Adoption East Midlands helpdesk/MDT team.
Smashing folks and we had biscuits!
The job of catching parents at point of crisis is, to put it mildly, is complex and hard. We talked about what can help and how peers can offer unique insight.

Everyone at Adoption East Midlands is looking forward to the debut of ‘The Book of Belonging’ at Nottingham Poetry Festival in a couple of weeks! We’re looking forward to hearing from our contributors as well as our resident author, Jay Sandhu.

The event is free to attend and is being held at Fisher Gate Point in Nottingham on the 14th of June from 5.00 pm - 6.30 pm. Signups for the poetry reading are on the day, and everyone is welcome to come and listen as well as perform.

Today we’ve got Abi on our socials who’s one of our fantastic writers from ‘The Book of Belonging’; she’s sharing her poem ‘Paradise’:

‘Paradise lies
in the haze of a single summer
that I keep protected
under a cocktail umbrella,
in a cabinet in the back of my memory,
top draw, right side.

It’s a room in a crumbling house,
now occupied by others like us, I’m sure,
below a skylight
pouring pink sun
over our aching bodies.

We need no sympathy,
sickness cured with smiles,
Tv always turned down low
on account of the missing remote,
hidden by smoke and incense
and the celestial tapestries that told me to stay.

Paradise was
a string of tissue flowers
she bought me on Pride
so that we could be matching,
as if people questioned that I were hers,
and she was mine.

Paradise was a guitar never tuned,
green tartan shared over soft, pale shadows
the comforter, drowned in sweet and sour soup.

When October fell,
she packed up our paradise in cardboard boxes
and threw a Halloween party to close our novella.

But she left me with it,
Paradise
protected under an umbrella
still sticky with Pina Colada,
kept safe in a cabinet in the back of my memory,
top draw, right side.’

Copies of ‘The Book of Belonging will be available to purchase on the day, and we can’t wait to see you there!