Celebrating Foster Care Fortnight

Today is the start of Foster Care Fortnight (12-25 May), the UK’s largest annual campaign to raise awareness of fostering and celebrate the transformative impact it has on children and young people.

With the guidance and support of Maethu Cymru Adra is proud to be one of the latest organisation to become a Foster Friendly Employer

A few weeks ago we were proud to announce that we’re now making a commitment to supporting local foster carers and the children they care for and improving support to our own employees and tenants at the same time.

With over 5,000 children currently in foster care in Wales, employers are being called upon to offer foster carers the flexibility to combine fostering with other work.

According to the National Fostering Network, nearly 40 per cent of foster carers combine fostering with other work. Having a supportive employer can make a world of difference to fostering families, enabling them to balance employment with fostering children. Support from their employer also helps those interested in fostering, to take that first step.

We believe, that we have a role to play, not just as a local employer but also as  large Landlord across North Wales, to support some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our society. Becoming a Foster Friendly Landlord means that we will support Maethu Cymru to dispel some of the myths around becoming a foster family – being a tenant shouldn’t be a barrier to fostering, and our houses are homes for families across North Wales. We will be working in partnership with Maethu Cymru.

One of our tenants has shared her experiences of fostering:

“I have been an Adra tenant for four years and have been fostering for about three. At times, it is difficult but having a tenancy with Adra has given me security and stability which has helped to remove any extra pressure by having a home.

“The best thing about fostering is being able to help. By fostering the child I am looking after at the moment, she has been able to stay in her community, go to the same school, keep her group of friends and still speak Welsh. Staying local has been essential to give her stability.

“Not all foster children have the option to stay local in their area. Some need to go as far as Scotland, and therefore lose all routine, contact and even their own language.

“Fingers crossed that people will see this and take it into consideration….there are so many children in need of foster care”.

We’ve also teamed up with Lisa and Meinir from Maethu Cymru to produce a video: