What is Foster Care? Foster Care is provided by volunteers in their homes, for children and young people (0–18 years) who need to live away from their families on a temporary or long term basis. Foster care may be respite, emergency, short or long term.
Children can come into care because of isolation, poverty, disability, abuse, neglect, domestic violence, family circumstances, health/illness, lack of parenting skills, financial/economic disadvantage and social isolation. It does not mean that their parents are necessarily uncaring.
Foster carers have a child live with them in their family home for as long as needed...days, months or even years. Currently Brophy Foster Care has 53 children and young people living with Foster Care families in Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland. This means there is more than one child/young person in a number of families. More carers are needed.
Recruitment areas are Warrnambool, Glenelg, Southern Grampians, Moyne and Corangamite Shires.Even if you are not in a position to help, you can raise awareness and spread the word through newsletters, newspapers, radio, during Volunteers Week or just bring up the topic in conversation.
The Foster Carer process involves:
* Sending out an information pack to a volunteer
* An information session is conducted in the volunteer’s home
* 2 days mandatory training
* 8 – 10 hours of assessment interviews
* Police, medical, home and environment checks
* A report is written and presented to the accreditation panel, who make the final decision – approval or not.
Support for carers involves support from Brophy staff – phone calls and home visits, ongoing training, after hours telephone services, reimbursement for day to day costs, a buddy program, newsletters and celebrations days.
So how can you help? You could ask Maddi and/or Rebecca to be guest speaker at a Community Group to which you belong. You may know of a newsletter or magazine where they could advertise. You could share what you learned with family and friends.
Ian thanked Maddi and Bec and presented them with a certificate and badge, and explained that a mosquito net will be supplied to a family in Papua New Guinea on their behalf.
