Who Foster Cares

As demand for Foster Carers in Australia increases, Compass meets several foster families to learn about the challenges and rewards fostering can bring. Almost 40-thousand Australian children live in ‘out-of-home-care’, but already there aren’t enough foster homes to go around. Now, foster care providers in NSW are reaching out to previously untapped families; gay couples and single parents among them. So what does it take to be a foster parent? Who currently welcomes foster kids - many of whom have suffered abuse or neglect - into their homes and lives? Why do they do it, and what are the rewards? At the start of “Foster Care Week” Compass finds out. For further information about Foster Care in your state…. www.benevolent.org.au www.anglicare.org.au NSW: Fostering NSW www.fosteringnsw.com.au or enquiry line: 1800 236 783 VIC: Foster Care Hotline: 1800 013 088 www.fosterabrighterfuture.com.au QLD: Foster Care Recruitment: 1300 550 877 TAS: Recruitment Line: 1800 732 522 WA: Foster Recruitment: 1800 182 178 www.childprotection.wa.gov.au SA: Foster Recruitment: http://www.sa.gov.au/subject/Community+support/Carers/Foster+care ACT: Centralised Intake Service: 1300 556 729 NT: Foster Care: 1800 814 599 Supplied by Association of Children's Welfare Agencies www.acwa.asn.au