Celebrating Foster Care Communities in Ireland

We are delighted to share the video of our online panel discussion event celebrating the communities that support foster care in Ireland, you can access the video here.

Back on 4th March of this year, as part of the Irish Foster Care Association’s annual Fostering Awareness Week, we hosted an online national panel discussion event:

“It Takes a Village……Celebrating Foster Care Communities in Ireland”

The panel discussed and celebrated the role that the community around the child and their foster family plays in helping to support the child in care to establish roots in the community in which they live – one in which they can grow and thrive and develop a sense of self, place and belonging.

The discussion was thoughtfully moderated by Dr. Danielle Douglas, Lecturer in Social Care, SETU Waterford

The panel of speakers included:                                                                                                                                                   Mike Walsh, Foster Carer, who described wonderfully his family’s  journey in fostering and how their local community has supported them all along the way.                                                                                                                                                           Siobhan O’Dwyer, CEO of YAP (Youth Advocate Programmes) Ireland, who talked about YAP’S powerful ethos and the work of their Youth Advocates who work directly with young people in their families and communities taking a strengths-based approach to supporting the development, welfare, participation and sense of agency and identity of young people in their local communities.

Maria O’Connell, Principal of St. Finian’s National School Finglas, described the unique and innovative relationship and attachment-based approach developed by the school over the past 7 years (in collaboration with other schools in the Finglas area) to support and facilitate the children’s participation in learning and school life to their fullest potential and to support their parents and carers in their roles in that also.

Alan Costello, Music Development Officer, Music Generation Kildare, talked about the power of children and young people coming together in the joyful process of creating music and the impact of that on their mental health and confidence and sense of belonging.

Shaunagh Cunningham, Advocate for the Care-Experiences Project and a Member of the Care Experience Expert Panel and Stakeholder Advisory Group at DCEDIY, moved the audience with her honest, articulate account of her early life and admission into care and the foster families and people in the community who cared for and supported her and her siblings.

Maureen Gillespie, Foster Carer and Esol Tutor with the Youth and Education Service for Refugees and Migrants, talked with great passion and compassion about the needs of migrant young people, particularly their need for a sense of belonging, family and community as they try to build their new lives here in Ireland following experiences of poverty, conflict and abuse and harrowing journeys to arrive here so far away from their families and communities of origin.