Name: Elodie Harris
Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Child Welfare, Foster Care and Adoption
Date of Fieldwork: February 24, 2022
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):April Dinwoodie
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :
On Thursday, February 24, 2022, our social justice group was honored to meet with April Dinwoodie, a former marketing executive who now works as a podcaster and influencer to help Black and Brown foster children find safe and loving homes. April is Black/Bi-Racial and was adopted into a white family. She shared her thoughts and experiences about the inequities in the foster care and adoption systems.
April June Dinwoodie was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Helen June. April has no information about her biological father. Helen could not care for her daughter, so April was put into foster care for a few months and later adopted. April’s adoptive parents (parent’s of experience) had three biological children, but they wanted a daughter, so they adopted April.
April was named, June, by her birth mother after her biological grandmother, however her parents of experience named her, April. Neither of these names is the month she was actually born which is October. “June” became April’s middle name, and she adopted her family of experiences’ last name, Dinwoodie. April now has a podcast called “Born in June, Raised in April,” a title that reflects her two names.
Coming into the Dinwoodie family was a welcoming experience for April, although she was the only adopted and Black/Bi-Racial child in the family. She felt different from her siblings of experience because of her race, but her family did not treat her differently despite her differences. April felt accepted at home, but once she got to middle school, she started to get bullied by her peers. Growing up in a predominately white environment as a Black/Bi-Racial girl was hard, and April had to protect herself. Her parents were not aware of what was happening and they did not share the same racial experiences as her. April felt stuck and didn’t know who to talk to about the bullying at school. She encountered lots of racism as she grew up, so this sparked an interest in making change for other kids like her who were going through similar experiences.
When April was in her 20s, she wanted to look for her birth mother, Helen, but Helen refused to meet her. April was heartbroken. It felt as if she had a “double rejection” because her birth mother didn’t accept her when she was born and later rejected her when she was a grown adult. April’s sadness and anger inspired her to start making change for other children so that they could reunify with their birth parents.
There are 200,000 children in foster care every year. Black and Brown foster children are always represented disproportionally than their white counterparts, and Black and Brown children stay in foster care for longer. Adoption agencies claim to “not see color” when finding homes for children, although race is a key factor in the adoption process. April believes that there should be more parents to adopt Black and Brown children. She thinks that all parents should be trained the same way as adoption parents. Parents must listen to their children and understand what is best for their future. April wants to help all Black and Brown foster parents to gain the training and understanding they need to be successful with their children.
Hearing April story is very inspiring. She is an incredible person who does so much for Black and Brown foster children. She has podcasts and a website, (https://aprildinwoodie.com/the-podcast) and works very hard every day to make change. This was an incredible interview!
