To become a foster carer is to take up a vocation that can bring a level of fondness and care into a young person’s life that they may not have experienced before. Children in need of foster care may have suffered from neglect or abuse and be in a vulnerable state because of this. Foster carers can make a difference by providing a stable and loving family environment to a child that may not have been lucky enough to experience these benefits before.
If children have endured unhappiness and insecurity in the past, they may have behavioural problems that foster carers will need to help them through. Whenever you require advice and support in understanding and coping with these difficulties, Fostering to Inspire will be there to assist you in every way.
Settled in a secure home and confident that they will receive their share of affection and understanding can help children flourish in very many ways. Foster carers can make a difference to a young person’s future academic achievements, their ability to make friends and form loving relationships, and can set them on a path to a successful career and a happy and fulfilling life.
If you decide to be a foster carer and make a difference to a child’s life, Fostering to Inspire will be on hand to support you on every step of your fostering journey, from the first telephone call to the first day with your new young person and onwards from there. To this end, we have adopted an ‘extended family’ model of support, based upon the Mockingbird Family Model; clusters of foster families forming constellations of support with a central foster carer at its heart, acting like a ‘Grandma’ or ‘favourite Auntie’. This means that both the children and the adults that care for them can find quality, tangible support to help them flourish.
Fostering will be a life changing experience both for you and the child that you have taken into your care. You will discover a lot about yourself and your inherent skills that you may not have been aware of before, while the child in your care will benefit from what they will learn from you.