Foster carers tell their stories

Foster carers in Torbay have been sharing what they love about fostering.
Torbay Council has been surveying local foster carers to ask them what they think about Fostering and as part of its ongoing work with them to promote Fostering and increase recruitment. Foster carers will be supporting the council’s fostering team at a number of upcoming events.
Comments from the survey have included:
“It’s the best thing ever.”
“Life-affirming. Rewarding. Fun. Challenging. Exhilarating.”
“Feeling like you’re making a difference and giving something back to the community.”
“Knowing you are helping a child to live in a safe loving home.”
The fostering team will also be on hand at the event to talk to other local employers about how to apply for fostering friendly accreditation – after the council was awarded the status last May.
Cllr Nick Bye, cabinet member for Children and Young People for Torbay, said: “Many of our local foster carers have described costering as a gift and a privilege. Fostering is a lifestyle and you need to be the right person to become a foster carer, with a kind heart and the ability to provide a loving, stable home.”
The fostering team are also attending a series of other events both in Torbay and the wider South Devon area, including libraries and town centres.
Foster carers in Torbay themselves also support the council's fostering recruitment events.
Martin, a local foster carer, has supported a number of our events.
He says: “The best thing about fostering for myself, my wife and son is seeing children recover and grow into amazing people, especially when they have had a traumatic upbringing and disadvantaged start in life. We’ve lived with and supported many children and young people over the past six years.
“Emergency foster care support has given us the opportunity to be there for a child at a very traumatic and scary time in their lives. We’re 100 per cent there for them at this time, give them a friendly, caring home for them to feel safe, cared for, valued, and believed in. They also have their own bedroom, an important personal safe space for them at this difficult time.
“Offering regular short-term respite to other foster carers has given us the opportunity to regularly have the same children staying with us over several years. We have now become part of their lives and they ours, being there of them as they grow up and we enjoy this time together. We often met or hear from the children who we have previously cared for and knowing that we helped them to achieve the impossible is the best feeling in the world. Fostering can be hard and very demanding at times, but the positives of the role outweigh any negatives, when you can see the difference you have made to a child’s life you know you have done something right.”
Upcoming fostering information events are being held on: Saturday, January 6 (10am to 1pm) at Torquay Library; between 11am and 1pm on Saturday, January 13 at Newton Abbot Library; Saturday, January 20 at Paignton Library; Saturday, January 27 at Totnes Library; Saturday, February 3 at Brixham Library; Thursday, February 15 at Newton Abbot Library; Saturday, February 17 at Churston Library; Saturday, February 24 at Paignton Library; Saturday, March 9 at Newton Abbot Library and Saturday, March 16 at Brixham Library.