What is Parent Finders Montréal?
What is Parent Finders Montréal?
We are not a search service, but we'll try to guide you in your search.
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.
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 promoting 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 National Office in Vancouver, CANADopt, and the Canadian Adoptees Registry Inc. We hold information and support meetings during the year, and maintain this Web site. Members support other members regardless of stage of search, reunion, or post-reunion, and may contribute to the Web site, or do research at local libraries and archives, etc.
Although we try to act as a general resource and support base for those whose search lies within Montréal and the province of Québec, requests from current PFMTL Members take clear precedence over non-members.
Note as of May 16, 2002:
Due to lack of active members, we are currently unable to take on research requests, although we can refer to you to persons who may help you. If you wish to volunteer, please contact 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 an agency. PFMTL tries to help members through bureaucratic mazes, and we support changes to legislation that 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, and yearly renewal fees are $20.00. As we don't have the human resources to put out a newsletter or mail reminders, we ask that members monitor their own renewal obligation and send in their $20.00 annual renewal fee. Members receive the services listed above (see What We Do), but for person-to-person conversations please come to a meeting, or arange for a telephone buddy (see below). Additional services include using a PFMTL address, e-mail address or phone number if placing ads in newspapers. Currently we don't have the human resources to provide mediation when contacting or reuniting with a birth relative, but we can coach you. To receive a membership form you may either contact us at the coordinates below, or you can print out the form.
Mailing Address:
Parent Finders Montréal
190 Davignon
Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Québec
Canada H9B 1Y5***Please note that PFMTL is unable to carry out searches or answer telephone inquiries at this time. The machine at the number below only announces meeting times and location. We hope to have a new number for inquiries soon, however telephone support buddies' numbers are still available on request (see below).
Phone: (514) 683-0204 (no calls returned; meeting information only)
Some PFMTL members offer their time as telephone or e-mail support buddies -- please contact us by email for current telephone numbers and availabilities. A volunteer will respond to you within a few days.
Meetings Fall 2004 - Spring 2005 (selected months, see below):
Location: Beaconsfield United Church, 202 Woodside, in Beaconsfield.
Time: 7:30 - 9:30 PM.
How to get there:
Woodside crosses Sherbrooke, which runs parallel to St. Charles Boulevard.Bus #217 has connections to the Beaconsfield train station and the Fairview mall, and stops right at the corner of Sherbrooke and Woodside (the bus travels down Sherbrooke street which is off St. Charles Blvd.). If you're coming via Métro, take bus #202 from du Collège station West, then change to the 217 at Fairview. Please contact the STM and the AMT for all schedules.
Thank you to Rhonda for organizing our meetings for the year, and to Rev. Friday of Beaconsfield United!
Beware: last year the Gazette's West Island Listings section made several errors in posting meeting dates. Please rely on our web site or meeting phone message for accurate information.
PFMTL meetings take place on the third Thursday of the month, and this year we will hold meetings during these months only:
October 21, 2004
November 18, 2004
January 20, 2005
February 17, 2005
March 17, 2005
May 19, 2005
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 need 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 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.
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 ties with post-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 may include:
- General counselling
- Direction on where to obtain background information
- Support in searching
- 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 certain 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, was the region's main support organization. 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.
Please note that Parent Finders Montréal has no business nor profit-making relationship with any group or individual mentioned on our site.