Bill and Mary Cowan receiving their 15 years service award from Sharon McEleney and Claire McCallion during the Celebration of Western Trust Foster Carers Awards at the Bishop’s Gate Hotel.
FOSTER carers from the Western Trust area have been recognised and celebrated at a glittering event held in Derry’s Bishops Gate Hotel.
Addressing over 60 foster carers at the event Mr Pat Armstrong, Head of the Fostering Service paid tribute to the ‘dedicated commitment and loving care’ that foster families provide, Mr Armstrong described fostering “as not a job or a career but more important than that it is about re-parenting of children who have experienced abuse, neglect and trauma”.
Mr Armstrong was addressing both mainstream foster carers and also kinship carers.
He referred to how children and young people have come to foster care from home environments which may have been threatening and fearful.
He said: “These children are often traumatised by their early life experiences, and we all agree that that they deserve, and have the basic right to be loved, cherished and healed”.
Mr Armstrong remarked: “The Western Trust Fostering Service is highly committed to training foster carers in how to re-parent children in care using a ‘Model of Attachment (MAP) practice’.
“This reminds foster carers that at the heart of their parenting is the special relationships a child forms with their caregiver which enables the frightened and vulnerable child to seek and receive security and comfort from them- with the focus always remaining on the child and not the behaviour”.
There has been a significant rise in the number of children and young people becoming ‘looked after’ across the Western Trust.
Around 80 per centof these young people are cared for in foster homes and in kinship care.
This growing demand has put the Fostering Service under significant stress and increases the need for more foster carers across the Western Trust area.
This is so that the Trust can find loving homes for children who cannot live with their birth families, keep brothers and sisters together and ensure children can remain within or near their_300px.jpg)
local communities.
Mr Armstrong said that foster carers played a very significant role in the recruitment process by promoting fostering in their own areas.
He concluded by thanking foster carers.
He said: “Thank you for being there on a consistent basis for children entrusted to your care.
“Thank you for the love and care you provide in your homes day and daily.
“Thank you for the understanding and patience that characterises your everyday interactions with children and thank you for putting up with the world of social work and the endless meetings and what ultimately matters is how we all work together to achieve positive outcomes for children so they can develop strong attachments that will hold them in good stead as they negotiate the big world out there” – you, the fostercarers are central to the child’s life and that is why we are celebrating you this evening”.
Among the celebrations, awards were presented to Western Trust carers in the local area who had been fostering for over 15 years. Tributes were also paid on a number of fostercarers who had recently retired from fostering after many years of service to the Western Trust Fostering Service.
The Western Trust’s Fostering & Recruitment Team will be holding information events:-
Fir Trees Hotel, Strabane – 7.30 pm, Thursday 11 May 2017
Roe Park Resort, Limavady – 7.30 pm, Monday 15 May 2017
Silverbirch Hotel, Omagh – 7.30 pm, Tuesday 16 May 2017
Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen – 7.30 pm, Wednesday 17 May 2017
Da Vincis Hotel, Derry – 7.30, Thursday 18 May 2017
There will also be information stands at:
South West Acute Hospital -10.00am – 4.00pm, Tuesday 09 May 2017
ASDA, Strabane – 10.00am – 4.00pm, Friday 12 May 2017
To read more about the urgent need for foster carers click here.
If you feel you have the time and space in your life to foster please contact the Fostering Recruitment & Assessment Team on 028 8283 5264 or email: [email protected]
Alternatively you can call HSC Regional Adoption and Fostering Service on 0800 0720 137 or enquire online.
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