I love watching young people flourish
Connie is one of the young champions from our Fostering Community Champions project in Scotland. Here, as part of Sons and Daughters Month, she writes about her experience of being part of a fostering family.
My family and I have been a fosteringr family for well over 10 years, supporting children and young people (birth to 18 years). Over the many years we have supported both family groups and individuals for long- and short-term placements with over 72 placements.
The most enjoyable part of being in a fostering family is see the child/ young person flourish; you get to be part of their journey as they come into your family and you support them through the process of finding their forever family. Then you finally see them have their own family and you feel like you have helped them in achieving their dream.
My favourite fostering moment was when we had a little girl call Kirstie come to stay with us. Then my parents and I became Kirstie's forever family. She is now a beautiful young woman, aged 17, having just passed her driving test and planning on going to college next year. Kirstie is kind hearted, has a lovely personality and it's a true honour to call her my sister. There are some pictures of us below.
For me, the most challenging part of being in a fostering family is the the number of meetings and the unsuccessful family contact sessions. Often the child/young person has contact with their birth family but sometimes, for lots of different reasons, the family cancels at the last minute or they don't actually want to attend the contact but they feel they need to as its their birth family. From personal experience the child/young person can come back to the house and their language, behaviour, feelings and attitudes can be negative and they can't always understand why. This can be difficult to be around however you must remember how difficult it is for them and you must be understanding of their situation.
I would say to anyone whose family is thinking of fostering that you should try to make the child/young person feel as welcome as possible into your home and family no matter how challenging it may be, as they are away from everything they know and everyone they love.
You should also try and meet up and chat with other young people who are part of fostering families for support but also for you to realise that your family may seem different to others but really it's just the same as all other families who foster and fostering is more comon than you think; there is no such thing as a normal family.
