Child & Adoption Advocacy

Lisa Dibb, Stephen’s wife, has been involved in volunteer work for the past 19 years in the area of adoption support & child advocacy.  This has been made possible through flexible hours and the financial support of Stephen Dibb Jewellery as well as the personal support of Stephen Dibb himself who also invests time and energy into all of Lisa’s projects.

Qld Children in Foster Care & Queensland Alliance for Kids

In 2013, Lisa Dibb and friends formed the QAK (Queensland Alliance for Kids) as they were deeply concerned that children in Qld foster care were having up to 35 placements and rarely getting a permanent family.

Their work has changed the lives of 1,000s of children and includes legislations amendment that puts a 2 year time limit on these vulnerable children getting a permanent family.  See QAK’s Facebook & QAK’s website for more details. QAK was formed to work at state level as child protection is state-based. They have worked closely with and applaud the work of Deborra-lee Furness‘ organisation Adopt Change who advocated successfully at the Federal level and have had major success in NSW.  Lisa personally has worked with Adopt Change for over 10 years.

Ethiopian Cultural & Adoption Connections

Without access to culture it is much harder for inter-country adopted children to form their blended identities.  For example, cooking, dancing and hair lessons are fun, informative and promote a sense of belonging.

Lisa Dibb has been involved in and continues to be involved in:

• President of the International Adoptive Families of Qld (IAFQ)  for 2 years and in this role she provided input on adoption parental education, adoption and child safety legislation and reducing red tape, for example, 10 of Lisa’s 16 recommendations were implemented by the Qld Department of Child Safety.  Lisa also speaks regularly to community groups and prospective adoptive families on adoption and child safety
• Co-ordinating with Deborra-Lee Furness’s organisation Adopt Change. For example speak at two of their conferences and promoting their 2018 National Permanency Conference held in Brisbane.

She has:

• Co-written a book designed to help Australians adopting from Ethiopia which has fundraised over $50,000 for Ethiopian charity
• Produced two Ethiopian language CDs (Amharic). All profits going to Ethiopian charity

Her on-going commitment to the culturalisation of Ethiopian adoptees so they can develop healthy bended identities includes:

• started over 14 years ago and still runs an Ethiopian dance group for adopted children.  Her daughter Tarik is now the teacher
• manager of Ethiopia Bahil Dance Group 2013-2017 and as a part of this role she and Stephen took 7 young performers to the Woodford Folk Festival in 2014 and again in 2016.  Her daughters now run the rename dance group The Ethiopian Dance & Culture Group.
• adoption support group’ liaisons with the local Ethiopian community
• created many opportunities for Ethiopian adoptees to access their culture including hair-styling days, cooking days, dance classes and celebrations with the local Ethiopian community for the past 18 years.

Links you might find interesting:

• Lisa Dibb’s journey to child advocacy and the lesson she has learnt.
• The photo of Lisa & Deborra-Lee above was at the Parliamentary Friends of Adoption at Parliament House in Canberra.   
• Lisa Dibb on the Radio.
• Lisa Dibb one of the speakers at the special screening of Lion the movie.
• Lisa Dibb talks about low adoption numbers in Queensland & Australia in the Cairns Post and Courier Mail.
• Lisa Dibb blogs about using adoption only when it is the best option for a child.
• Stephen Dibb speaks to the Jewellery Association of Australia about his wife’s charity work.
• Awarded for their charity work by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane & Clayton Utz.
• Lisa Dibb speaks at the 2017 Adopt Change Permanency Conference on Child Advocacy – here is her abstract.
• and the program.
• Lisa Dibb speaks at the 2018 Adopt Change Permanency Conference on Permanency Support – her speech & the program..
• Lisa Dibb quoted in The Epoch Times.
• Lisa Dibb speaks at the Power House about Surrogacy.
• Just some of the research Lisa Dibb has contributed to.
• Details of Lisa’s charity.
• Reference to Lisa Dibb meeting with the Minister.
• Reference to Lisa Dibb’s submission to the Human Rights Commission.
• Reference to Lisa Dibb’ submission to 2015 Adoption Inquiry heading by Bronwyn Bishop

Stephen and Lisa Dibb are also involved in international community projects.

Stephen and Lisa Dibb are also involved in their supporting their local community.