Tusla to hold fostering info night
THE Child and Family Protection Agency, Tusla, is to hold an information night in county Wexford for people interested in fostering a child.
The event will be held in the Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy, on Thursday, October 17.
There will be two sessions on the day, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
They are being organised to coincide with National Fostering Week and are aimed at encouraging people to consider Tusla as their fostering agency.
A spokesperson for the organisation told this newspaper that the aim of the initiative is to raise awareness of the positive aspects of fostering with Tusla.
One couple who have such experience is Aly McNeill and Niamh Callery, from Forth Mountain.
Speaking about the benefits of fostering through Tusla, Niamh said it’s very rewarding but people getting involved need to remember that it’s all about the children.
‘While it is rewarding, if people get into fostering for themselves, because they think they will have a child for life, they are doing it for the wrong reasons,’ said Niamhm who is from Wexford.
She met Aly, who is from the north, over 20 years ago in Dublin and they have been fostering in Wexford for the last nine years. ‘Everything in life is circumstance,’ said Aly. ‘All we try and do is help the children reach their full potential as people,’ she added.
She said the administration aspect ‘can be frustrating and time consuming’ but she accepted it’s necessary.
‘We have been very lucky with our Link Support Worker.’ she said.
‘The help and support she gives us is so important; we’ve been blessed in that respect.’
Tusla provides different types of fostering including: respite (caring for children and young people over weekends or for set periods during a week); short term care; emergency care; long term general care and SAIL (a supported lodgings programme for young people aged 16 to 23 years-of-age).
The Tusla spokesperson said the organisation’s fostering programme needs ‘all types of foster carers’ including single, same-sex couples, and ethnically diverse.
‘It specifically needs people who have the time to give to a child,’ said the spokesperson.
Foster carers must be over 25 and there is a screening process involved.
An allocated Link Social Worker supports the carer and their family and other support initiatives include meetings for foster carers, training pre and post-approval, and an out-of-hours service.
Tusla’s new Chief Executive Officer, Bernard Gloster, said the idea behind the Tusla National Fostering Week is to ‘dispel common misconceptions about foster care’.
‘We are looking for foster carers from all walks of life to provide safe and stable environments for children who, due to a range of reasons, can’t live at home,’ said Mr Gloster.
‘It only takes one person to change a child’s life,’ he added.
There are currently 4,254, Tusla foster carers around the country taking care of 5,511 children and across counties Wexford and Waterford there are 318 foster carers at present who open their homes to 358 children.
‘In the Wexford Area, we are committed to ensuring children remain with their families and connected to their communities,’ said Mr Gloster.
He said carers encourage the children they are fostering to ‘participate in their communities through schools, sports clubs and other activities’.
‘In Wexford, we are looking for people from all backgrounds, aged over 25 years, who are interested in working with us to provide foster care and respite care for children up to 18 years-of-age,’ he said.
The CEO of the Irish Foster Care Association (IFCA), Catherine Bond, also encouraged anyone interested in fostering to get in touch with Tusla.
‘When a child cannot live with their own family, the best alternative for them is to live within another loving and secure family environment.’
Anyone interested in finding out more is encouraged to go along to the information sessions in the Riverside Park Hotel, log onto www.tusla.ie, or phone 053 9259546.