Connections youth services program manager Craig Wotherspoon with youth worker Caroline Hanna.
By Kelly Yates
CASEY is facing a teenage foster care crisis.
Connections Adolescent Community Placement in Narre Warren, a support service for children in foster care, is urging the community to become involved.
Connections youth services program manager Craig Wotherspoon said the program needed volunteers to offer their homes and hearts to the children.
“To help a young person change their life is an enormous privilege,” Mr Wotherspoon said.
According to Connections Adolescent Community Placement, in the past 10 years there has been a decrease in the number of people inquiring about becoming carers.
“It is getting harder and harder each year as the adolescents coming into our care are experiencing much more complex problems,” He said. “Every child deserves the right to feel like they matter in the community.”
Foster carers are the backbone of Victoria’s child protection services, and volunteers can care for adolescents for short, medium and long term periods. Adolescents are placed with foster families in their local community so they can maintain their links with their friends, schools and other activities.
New carers undertake an assessment process including several home-based interviews, an intensive training program and ongoing 24-hour support.
For information contact the Adolescent Community Placement team at Connections on 9704 8377.
