Adoption and foster care

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‘Every child deserves someone who is absolutely crazy about them!’ We believe that.

 

Unfortunately, we live in a situation where thousands of children cannot live with their birth parents for many reasons. Adoption is a process where children are legally placed into screened and vetted families as though born to them. A child placed in a family forever. However, we know many children have been loved and lived with family throughout our country and are in those families and have the same feelings of as born to them, without ever formalising the parentage.

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Either way, permanency is the binding factor here and legal adoption offers that. Children need parents, they need a family and all the joys and stresses of that, the beauty of extended family and just ‘belonging’.

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Fostering has many facets: befriending, respite, short and long term and what we like to call ‘forever fostering’. Fostering is challenging but extremely rewarding. The child is our priority and we look at how best we can support Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCC – children’s homes) in offering some expression of family to the children in their care. This will be in done in partnership with the CYCC and we will explore how this is done in the best interest of the child.

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Unfortunately, many children living in children’s homes do have family that they could possible live with if further investigations were conducted. However, there are some children in the residential care system who have no access to family, and it is these young people we want to serve.

• LIFE CHANGER advocates for adoption and supports prospective adoption parents in counselling and adoption readiness.

• LIFE CHANGER offers post adoptive support for parents and children

• LIFE CHANGER supports and trains people who are interested in fostering or befriending young people living in children’s homes

• LIFE CHANGER provides opportunities for churches to get involved in the lives of children living in care as long as commitment and consistency is maintained

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NB - No one will have access to children without being police checked and screened for the sexual offences and child protection register. All individuals will be trained and vetted by LIFE CHANGER. Those not deemed ready to work with or have access to children will be allowed to work through and with LIFE CHANGER in other areas, but never directly with children until such time as they meet the child protection policy requirements.