- Cairns hosts Foster and Kinship Carer Conference from tonight to Sunday (28-30 April)
- The conference theme is Communication, Collaboration and Relationships
- The event kick-starts Foster and Kinship Carer Week, which runs from 29 April to 6 May 2023
- Across Queensland, more than 6000 carers support more than 10,000 children and young people in care.
Foster and kinship carers, government agencies and key sector stakeholders are gathering in Cairns this weekend for the annual Foster and Kinship Carer Conference.
The conference, organised by peak body Queensland Foster and Kinship Care, provides a range of workshops and is a source of information and knowledge for carers and industry partners.
This year’s conference theme, Communication, Collaboration and Relationships, highlights the joint effort that goes into making foster and kinship care a success.
Minister for Children, Leanne Linard, will officially open the conference on Saturday.
The conference is the first event of Foster and Kinship Carer Week, which shines a spotlight on the more than 6000 carers from across Queensland who support more than 10,000 vulnerable children and young people in care.
The number of carer families increased by more than 1500 over the last 12 months.
Quotes attributable to the Minister for Children, Leanne Linard:
“Foster and kinship carers are the lifeblood of our child protection system. Their commitment and dedication to children in care is changing lives for the better and for this I say thank you,” she said.
“Queensland has more than 6,000 foster and kinship carer families who come from all walks of life. This includes married couples with children of their own, single parent carers, members of the LGBTIQA+ community and First Nations carers.
“The Foster and Kinship Carer Conference is an opportunity for many carers and the organisations that support them to come together. I’m looking forward to again meeting with many of our carers this weekend, including Cairns’ own Lisa and Clayton, to hear their stories and listen to their feedback.
“We know that demand on the child protection system has increased in recent years. There are now currently more than 10,000 children and young people living with foster and kinship carers. We also know that, like all families, cost of living pressures are impacting on foster families.
“The Department of Children continues to work with existing foster and kinship carers while also working to attract more people to come forward and take on the role of caring for vulnerable children in our communities.
“The Palaszczuk Government backs our carers. We increased carer payments by 7.9 per cent in January and we are continuing to work with the peak body and other stakeholders to provide as much support as possible.
“I encourage any carers who need extra support or help, or who are having any issues at all, to reach out to their agency or their child safety officer, because help is always available.”
Quotes attributable to Cairns-based foster carers, Lisa and Clayton:
“We became foster carers because we wanted to give back to our community and we wanted to role model that for our kids as well,” Lisa said.
“There are some children out there who have had a really rough start or have had something really serious happen in their life and we need to help them out.
“The children just want someone to be there and love them. They want that routine. They want to know where the next meal’s coming from, that it’s all in a nice predictable fashion. And if you can provide that, you can foster care.
“I’m looking out for the children in our community.”
“You’ve got to be all in when you look after these kids,” says Clayton. “You know, you’ve got to be their advocate as well, whether you have them for two weeks or full time, you just got to make sure that they get what they need.
“It is joy. Now fostering is just a part of who I am.”
