The prestigious event will take place in the Hilton Hotel, Belfast on Friday 20 May 2016. Each year these awards recognise and celebrate the contribution individual foster carers and kinship foster carers make towards the lives of children in foster care.

Last year’s foster carer winner, Karen Sharkey, from Omagh, is the oldest of five children, and she was inspired to foster by her aunt who was a foster carer for 25 years. Karen always knew she wanted to work with children, became a childminder in her early twenties and, with her sister, became a foster carer at the age of 23. Since then Karen has looked after 15 children and continued to childmind until very recently when she decided to to dedicate her time to meet the needs of the two boys she fosters. 

Fellow foster carer and friend Susan, who nominated Karen, said: “She goes to great lengths to fully understand their conditions and will do whatever it takes for the children in her care to achieve their full potential. She gives them so much love and one to one attention. It is lovely to see them living such happy lives.”

If you would like to nominate a foster carer or a kinship foster carer for the awards, please download and complete a nomination form telling us why you think they should be considered and return it to the following address by Friday 11th March 2016:

Kellie Long
Freepost RLZS-UULZ-YBJJ 
The Fostering Network
Unit 10
40 Montgomery Road
Belfast
BT6 9HL