Can you offer a child a happy foster home?

Hope Fostering Services are reaching out to potential foster parents from all walks of life, saying the role can be challenging but also immensely rewarding.

Operational Manager Karen Daley explained,“for Hope it’s important to identify local carers for local children to prevent those children finding themselves living a long way from their family, friends and school. Therefore, we are currently recruiting people who are interested in a career in fostering and are looking to widen our pool of carers who have the right skills and qualities that give children the best chance of a stable childhood and opportunities to build a secure future.

“A wider pool of foster carers with the right skills and qualities makes it more likely that the right homes can be found for children, giving them the best chance of a happy and stable childhood and a successful future.”

Based in Dorking Road, Radford, Hope Fostering Services works with foster parents who are able to provide foster care to meet the individual needs of children and young people in terms of their culture, religion, ethnicity, gender and age.

May, an African-Caribbean foster parent who has been in the role for three years, says: "It gives me pleasure and joy to see a young person shine. When they're happy, they shine and when they shine, I feel proud that I have contributed to that happiness within the child.”

She praised the training and support Hope offers and the friendliness of the staff, adding: “Fostering can be very challenging and stressful, but it can also be fun and very rewarding.

"When a child who has very low self-esteem tells me that they feel safe and secure in my home, when I see them enjoying activities in the community to help develop their self-confidence and help them form friendships, I know I have made the right choice."

To apply to be a foster parent, you should be aged over 25, not have any children under the age of five and have a spare bedroom, along with other criteria; applications are welcome from people from many different backgrounds, whether married, single, living together, with or without children. Whether you want to make a career out of fostering, or your goals are more short-term, Hope Fostering Services would love to hear from you.

“Children of all ages and backgrounds come into care requiring the nurture and support of a foster family; there is also a need for foster carers who can look after children with complex needs and groups of brothers and sisters,” adds Karen.

“By becoming a foster carer, you can change children and young people’s lives – and you will also enrich your own.”

Call 0115 900 2795 to speak to one of the team or today email [email protected]. For more details and to read more about the criteria to be a foster parent, visit www.hopefs.co.uk