News and Blog - page 89

Two Pathway Care foster carers have raised over £7000 for charity by taking part in The Bristol 10k Run. Gay and Rob Selman, who are also from Bristol, raised the funds for three charities – The Jessie May Trust, Rainbow Trust and Sense Woodside. Gay and Rob have been foster carers with Pathway Care since 2006 and currently foster a three year old who has very complex needs and requires 24 hour care. Gay said: “As well as the support we receive from Pathway Care, we have had excellent support from the three charities in helping us to cope with a child with complex needs. The Jessie May Trust supports children with life limiting conditions and we really wanted to help it raise some money. “We know how tough it is to foster a child with complex needs and initially I sat with her in hospital, seven days a week, so we could try and get her to become more responsive. Our whole family took part in the run, along with 24 members of our local football team that Rob Coaches and all funds raised will be split between the three charities. We really wanted to give something back.”

We are supporting two of our foster carers on a Pembrokeshire to Paris charity bike ride, by donating £400 towards new cycling kit from our community donation fund. Kevin and Hannah Jones, from Haverfordwest, are part of a team of 15 people who are cycling nearly 600 miles, from Haverfordwest to Paris in September to raise money for Pembrokeshire Friends of Prostate Cymru, Pembrokeshire Branch of the National Autistic Society and Pembrokeshire Riding for Disabled. The event will take place over six days, which is just under 100 miles a day. Kevin said: “We enjoy raising money for charity so we arranged the Pembs 2 Paris Charity Cycle Challenge with some friends. I’m a keen cyclist and I have supported Hannah when she completed the Three Peaks challenge two years ago and a Himalayan Trek last year, so she really wanted to support me in this event and is the only female participant. “All the riders are giving up their own time to take part in the event. We’ve all been training really hard and recently completed the Wales Velothon, which had up to 15,000 riders and was nearly 100 miles long. “The biggest challenge is going to be getting back on the bike every morning for six days. We have cycled over 100 miles a day for two days in the past, but it’s going to be a lot different on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth day. We have a great team of people and are really looking forward to it as we have been training hard and will be glad to get on the road and get going.” Kevin and Hannah have been foster carers for 13 years with Pathway Care. Kevin was a police officer for 30 years previously and he and Hannah are qualified to offer respite, short term and long term care, fostering 40 children over the years. Anyone wishing to donate towards the Pembrokeshire to Paris charity event should visit www.justgiving.com/timbohughes

Pathway Care’s Youth Council has organised a charity walk in Birmingham for foster carers and staff members to raise money for a Solihull children’s charity. The Youth Council, which is made up of six members of children in care aged between 10 and 16 years of age, has organised a sponsored 2k and 5k walk which are set to take place on 20 August 2015 at Cannon Hill Park. Funds will be raised for AKAMBA, a charity that supports the needs of disadvantaged children in other countries. Catherine Rioda, regional service manager for Pathway Care in the Midlands, said: “Our whole ethos is around offering support and care to vulnerable children. The Youth Council meets every school holiday to participate in the review and improvement of our service and does a great job in organising events like the Charity Walk – it’s great that our members are thinking about other children and wanting to help their community with this event. “This event is a great opportunity for our young people, staff and foster carers to work collectively to support AKAMBA and help them support others. We support our foster carers in a number of different ways – from holding events such as the charity walk, to the high quality support we offer as part of our package – 24 hours a day, therapists, social worker and nationally recognised qualifications. We look forward to our Youth Council raising funds for a worthwhile cause.” If you’d like to find out more about being a foster carer with Pathway Care, contact 0800 170 1706.

We have raised over £800 in memory of our colleague Nick Preston, the Devon operations manager, who passed away suddenly earlier this year. The Children and Young People’s group at Pathway Care, a participation group of five foster children aged between 12 and 16 years, raised £873 by organising a football tournament and fete where refreshments, cake stalls, fairground games and a raffle took place. Held in Plymouth, the event was attended by over 80 staff members, carers and their families. The football tournament winners were presented with The Preston Cup as a tribute to Nick and the Children and Young People’s Group also wrote to local businesses for 70 raffle prize donations, including gifts from Waterstones and Plymouth Aquarium. Funds raised have been donated to local charities, Jeremiah’s Journey, which works with children who have experienced bereavement and Winchester Hospital. Sharon Cavaliere, regional service manager for Pathway Care in the South East, said: “Nick was a hugely valued friend and colleague and his death was a huge shock for everyone. We really wanted to do something in his memory and when the Children and Young People’s Group came up with the idea of a football tournament and fete to raise money, we thought it was a great suggestion. The day was a huge success and everyone worked together to pay tribute to Nick and support local charities.”

We’ve all seen in the news that the UK will shortly welcome more refugees and unaccompanied children into the country in need of a safe and stable home, following the humanitarian crisis. The role of foster carers has never been more important in offering a safe haven for all vulnerable children – whether they are seeking asylum, coming from UK based care backgrounds, teenagers or toddlers – to grow up in. Catherine Rioda, Regional Director for Pathway Care in the Midlands, talks about why the need for more carers is greater than ever and why it’s important that all foster carers are flexible about the type of child they can look after: “There is really no way of knowing when a child comes to you as a foster carer, exactly what that child has experienced and how they will react to your environment. Every child is an individual and foster caring is about understanding that there are no one size fits all rules about age, gender or culture when it comes to children. We can’t make presumptions about them based on stereotypes and referral information can be limited – so we look at all foster children as individuals, who come with their own challenges, but also their own positives. “Foster parenting of unaccompanied children seeking asylum, who will be in need of homes, presents its own challenges, as with any other type of fostering. Each child has had a different experience and we don’t have a real insight into exactly how frightening life has been for any child who needs foster care. We don’t make presumptions about children and we would advise any foster carers similarly to not make presumptions about what child they are best looking after. You may find you are suited to teenagers, rather than young children and cultural matches don’t have to be exact. No child is easier or harder to look after than another, they all come with different social needs and there is no handbook. We ask our foster carers to be open minded, look at what fits into your household and what you do socially. “Every young person is unique and every child brings lots of positives to your home. With the children we are seeing on the news, we have to remember that we know little about their backgrounds. They have had an extremely traumatic journey into this country from start to finish, which will have been harrowing. Young children have landed in a country where they don’t speak the language and a simple bang noise in our household may remind them of war from their own experience. We need to ensure, like we would with any other child, that they feel welcome and safe and that cultural links within the local community are quickly established. “Our advice would be to not rule yourself out of being a foster carer for any type of child. You can do it and it doesn’t matter if you are not from the same cultural background – it matters more that you are willing to learn of their background to meet their needs. Foster caring is about going back to basics and parenting from the start. “At Pathway Care we offer high quality training for every behaviour that you would see demonstrated by a child. We offer a huge range of support for foster carers and children, through our team of social workers, clinical psychologists, and family support workers – there is always someone here, 24 hours a day, seven days a week to lean on. We have excellent Ofsted ratings and are on local authority preferred supplier frameworks, which mean we have access to a lot of different placements and there is a child to suit everyone. “We value life skills and age, gender, ethnicity and sexuality are not a barrier to becoming a carer with us. Most people who become foster carers have never looked after someone else’s child in another capacity, but we look to draw these traits out of people. Some have skills from work experience too and we welcome all applicants to come and talk to us. It’s about how you can offer a huge range of young people a stable home, nurturing care and the chance to achieve their potential.” If you would like to talk to us about being a foster carer with Pathway Care, call 0800 170 170 9