Could you help siblings to grow up together?
Why foster? Fostering can make a world of difference to a child or young person’s life, supporting their future independence. It’s also a rewarding career or vocation for those looking to make a change. Why Calon Cymru Fostering? Calon Cymru has been supporting foster carers and looked-after children for more than 23 years, providing support and training to fostering families who take on a variety of fostering placements, from fostering teenagers, to parent and child placements and sibling groups. What is sibling-group fostering? There are times when a group of two or more siblings require a foster home. In many cases, it is in the children’s best interests to be placed together, not only to keep some normality in their lives, but because of the special bond they have. Fostering siblings is a very rewarding experience that can enrich your life. It’s all the rewards of fostering one child – but multiplied! What’s involved? The difference with fostering siblings, is that you need to have the space for more than one child in your home.
Fostering siblings comes with its own set of challenges, just like any other type of fostering. For example, one of the children might have had to parent the rest of the sibling group. You would be giving them back their childhood, and allowing them to enjoy growing up together.
Calon Cymru offers extra support to foster carers, to reflect the additional demands that come with fostering siblings. What are the benefits of fostering siblings? Siobhan, who was placed with Calon Cymru foster carers Len and Irene, said: “I was placed with my sister Clare, and that was very important for us.
“It was really nice for me to have someone who was related to me, even though we call Irene and Len ‘Nan and Bamps’. They are family, but my sister and I have a closer connection, so I am so thankful we were placed together.
“In reality, it was probably not that different to the upbringing of a child who wasn’t in care. Nan and Bamps have been huge, huge parts of both our lives.
“Thanks to our foster family we have the best memories and they have given us the best lives. I don’t feel like I’ve grown up in foster care, because they’re just my family.” What’s next? If you think you could provide a home for siblings, contact the friendly team at Calon Cymru Fostering for an informal chat.