Could you open your heart and home to foster?
FAMILIES TELL THEIR HEART--WARMING STORIES OF ACCEPTING A CHILD IN NEED INTO THEIR LIVES
THERE are currently more than 250 children across Greater Manchester in need of a home.
With Christmas quickly approaching, there is a desperate shortage of foster carers across the region.
The Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT) is struggling to find foster homes for 264 children and young people in care that have been referred to them this month.
Charity workers are desperate to enlist more families who can care for the youngsters most in need.
In the hope of inspiring others, these three families have explained why they decided to become foster carers.
Karen and Marcus, from Hollingworth, Rochdale have also had a positive experience with fostering, though it was a long battle to get to where they are today.
During their assessment, Karen’s sister died of cancer, but it didn’t stop the couple from welcoming a foster child to their family.
It was after being made redundant that Karen, along with Marcus and their sons, decided they were ready to embrace fostering.
“As we have foster carers in our family and among our friends, we were fully prepared for the challenges one might face, but also for the rewards it brings,” she says. The family are currently caring for an 11-year-old girl who came to them on an emergency placement.
“It all happened so fast we didn’t even have time to be nervous or worried.
“It was exciting with the element of unknown.
“We were her first foster carers and she was our first foster child.
“We have really enjoyed giving our foster daughter new experiences and teaching her important life lessons to help her grow into a strong, healthy and confident person.
“During the last ten months, we have seen a very unconfident girl who did not participate in any social activities turn into an amazingly popular child whose social calendar is more interesting than ours.
“For us, fostering is a family affair. My husband works as a police officer but he is just as involved in fostering as I am, attending as many meetings and training sessions as possible and we go for our fun days out altogether.
“Our three sons, aged 25, 22 and 16, have been incredibly supportive and they look after their little foster sister.”
Sam and Trevor know exactly how rewarding fostering can be.
The couple are newly approved carers who have been looking after an unaccompanied asylum seeker at their home in Oldham.
“We had a spare room and lots of love to