National Adoption Week

This National Adoption Week (20–26 October), You Can Adopt is tackling the misconceptions around needing a ‘perfect’ home head-on, showing that children who need to be adopted don’t need perfection – they need a ‘welcome home’.

To launch the campaign, an immersive pop-up kitchen installation – A Welcome Home – is unveiled this week in London and Leeds, co-created by real adoptive families from across the country. The installation, and campaign, is supported by The Great British Bake Off’s Prue Leith (adopter), Sort Your Life Out’s Dilly Carter (who was adopted), Love Island’s Sanam Harrinanan (a Post Adoption Social Worker) – as well as Oscar-winning author Charlie Mackesy.

From the imaginations and memories of real adopted children, the heartwarming hand-drawn family kitchen celebrates the ‘perfectly imperfect’ family homes made possible by adoption. The pop-up kitchen is cosy, cramped and full of the clutter and chaos of everyday family life, and each item in the house tells a story of what made a house feel like a forever home to a real adopted child.

Prue Leith, adoptive mother and grandmother to adopted children, helped to curate the installation and said: “When I adopted my daughter, it was in the kitchen that we bonded most, over meals, mess and everyday life. Now she’s adopted children of her own – so I’m really pleased to have been a part of bringing ‘A Welcome Home’ to life. It’s about showing that – just like any kind of parenting – adoption is messy, joyful, challenging, real, and rewarding beyond measure. Adoption gives a child a place at the table, and that’s where love truly grows.”

Among the families who helped co-create the installation, with items based on their personal anecdotes and bonding moments from their own homes, are:

• Emma and Mike – a cookie jar (representing the Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? song they sing together each mealtime) and home-made handprint tablemats
• Amanda – a family recipe passed down from her grandmother, featured alongside a disco ball – a reminder of the many karaoke disco nights that have taken place in the kitchen
• Julia and Winston – a pancake pan with accompanying sauce bottle and a trunki case
• Tracy and Giulio – a blender and jar representing making pesto from scratch, a fun activity that brings the family together in the kitchen

The kitchen was chosen as the heart of the campaign because it’s where many adoptive families say they connect with their children most deeply. It’s a space filled with meaningful moments – with nearly a third of parents (29 per cent) saying their best memories of bonding with their child happened there, and 22 per cent sharing that cooking and sharing meals helped them build connection.