foster care resources
Fostering our Future is Community Services quarterly newsletter for foster carers. It includes information on current news and initiatives, and provides foster carers with a way to share stories, achievements, activities and ideas.
Latest issue: Summer 2013
partnership agreement between Community Services and carers
The Partnership agreement between Community Services and carers has been developed to outline how we work together every day to meet the needs of children and young people.
Caring for kids - a guide for foster, relative and kinship carers
Caring for kids contains information about a range of day-to-day issues you may encounter as a foster carer, as well as providing a reference point for other useful sources of information and assistance.
Raising them strong
Supporting Deadly Behaviours – booklet provides advice on typical challenges that parents and carers face with children.
Case Management booklet – talks about what to expect when a child first comes into care including court proceedings, case plans, contact arrangements with birth parents and financial support.
Caring Together booklet – looks at the particular challenges that carers face when caring for children and young people with disabilities. It covers settling children with disabilities into your family and talking with them, specialist support staff and teachers about how to give them the care and attention they need. It also goes through some of the common disabilities experienced by children in care including Autism Spectrum Disorder, foetal alcohol problems, hearing and vision impairment and physical disabilities.
Booklet – support for Aboriginal foster and kinship carers covering topics such as health, education, grief and loss, family contact and navigating ‘the system’.
Topic cards – support for Aboriginal foster and kinship carers covering health, education, family contact and support.
DVD - the 45-minute DVD, divided into three sections, provides ‘real life’ scenarios and carer stories. The DVD can be viewed by carers in their own home, in their own time. See: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
Leaving care
Leading the way - explains to carers how they can pass on typical life skills like cooking, money management or job searching to teens. It also has useful tips for putting things in place to manage the transition and how to manage emotional expectations.
Leaving care checklist - Learning how to look after yourself and solve life’s little problems is part of growing up but are you ready to be independent?
other resources.
Supporting carers of other people’s children (AFCA national foster carer handbook)
Support for you
Support for you - support groups and organisations for carers