Cafs calls for new foster families

IF you’ve ever considered opening your home to a young person needing foster care, Child and Family Services is encouraging you to speak up and help out.

Cafs CEO Wendy Sturgess said her team would like to place 60 children per night with safe, emotionally and physically-prepared foster families, but the organisation currently has a gap.

“We need just over 90 accredited carers, so we’re looking to recruit 17 new people,” she said.

“It can be a lengthy process. People need to have a room in their home and they need to be prepared to make a commitment, but it’s a really broad range of people who can become foster carers, whether their young, old, in a same-sex couple, are teachers or retirees.

“It’s people who have room in their lives to look after children, whether it’s for a month, or a year.”

Ms Sturgess said the infants, children or teenagers being placed in foster care cannot currently live in their own home, but Cafs’ goal is to help young people transition back to be with their own families.

“We support their family, with other services, so these children can ultimately go home. Not all of them can, but we hope that most of them can be transitioned home,” she said.

“It’s important if we can keep young people in this community. If they can stay close to their school and family connections, they do better. If they move and lose those links, they’re disadvantaged.”

The organisation often receives feedback from foster carers about how “incredibly rewarding” their role is.

“Whether they’ve got children in their existing family or not, they overwhelmingly say they get a lot from giving care to someone else in need.

“We’re a vulnerable society. It’s a cliché, but it takes a village to raise a child and COVID has heightened that in our community,” Ms Sturgess said.

“Something tangible we can do is reach out and say, ‘I’ve got a room, I’ll do the training, I think it will help my family, and be a learning experience that will bond us, and our wider circle’.”

Although a positive way to give back to the community, Ms Sturgess doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the challenges that come with foster care.

“We often have trouble finding homes for older children, but they’re desperately grateful to be in a family.

“Families say providing stability to these young people, offering good parenting and nurturing them is uplifting for everyone involved,” she said.

Those interested in becoming a foster carer are invited to have a phone consult with Cafs. If they’re eligible, face-to-face meetings and training would follow.

New carers may begin offering respite, which Ms Sturgess said is incredibly valuable.

“We’re there 24-seven along the way, literally, offering support in terms of skills and strategies, because a lot of these young people have come from traumatic experiences.

“Cafs has cared for children for over 155 years, so there’s a lot that we do know,” she said.

Visit cafs.org.au/fostering for more information.