What our foster carers say
Hugh - LGBTQ+
Hugh, a mainstream foster carer talks about their motivation for becoming foster carers with Coventry, the fostering application process, the support they received from the Service and how they moved on from providing short stays to one child to offering a longer care arrangement for another. He shared the process taught them to “manage tricky situations” however also “how rewarding it has been”.
Louise - fostering
Louise, a mainstream foster carer talks about “her fostering moment” and how it captured their time together in the foster home and how well they all “work together”.
Louise - Unaccompanied minors
Louise, a mainstream foster carer talks about initially wanting to work with younger children and how she went on to foster older young people. How she supports them with developing their independence skills and how they can enjoy fun activities together.
Louise - fostering teenagers
Louise, a mainstream foster carer talks about caring for an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child. Initially, her main fear was about not being able to communicate to the child in their own language. The Service put her in touch with another carer who has had some similar experiences and “Google translate became my friend”. She made sure she put subtitles on, however also supported the young person to improve their English skills. All the worries she felt at the start, around food preparation and culture, she said “he has helped me to learn” and it now “works really well”.
Timi's story
Timi, a Next Steps carer stresses the importance of “having a heart for children because you need a lot of patience” and resilience on your fostering journey. She shares as a Next Steps carer, you will be caring for children with complex needs. At times it is challenging however “the joy of seeing children settle over time; we have the joy of seeing children not only settle at home but settle in school”.
We were approved as foster carers on the Next Steps Scheme (Specialist Fostering). We have two birth children and currently we have one child we are fostering.
We do not consider the fostering of children more challenging than raising one’s own birth children. It’s not that there are no challenges, but that’s what parents are built for; to help another generation grow to their full potential. We have had to adapt some of our routines to accommodate our young people and make room to accept them as they were, when they came to us.
Fostering is a great thing to do. We feel we all have enough love and kindness to share. The addition of a child or children to your home brings many advantages; one of the important ones is that every child brings something good into your home, even if they don’t know it.