To celebrate foster care diversity, the Young Person’s Ambassador Board have launched an exciting new booklet to coincide with Cultural Diversity Month.
Over the past year, the young people who are part of Orchard Fostering’s Young Person’s Ambassador Board “A Young Orchard’s Voice“ have been hard at work creating material and bringing together their ideas to enhance our services and supports for all young people within Orchard Fostering. You may have already seen their “Little Book of Big Words” which they created and launched two years ago.
Now, we are excited to announce the launch of our new booklet “We care about Culture” to coincide with Diversity month in April. This launch is a family-friendly event for our foster families. On this fun-filled day, we’ll hear more from the young people that make up the ambassador board. They’ll introduce their new booklet and share their experiences making it.
The launch will take place on Tuesday the 11th of April. On the day, we’ll have some nibbles and light entertainment from a magician.
If you’re interested in foster care, please reach out to Orchard Fostering today. We’re available on the phone or via email – you can also fill out a form directly on our contact page.
Celebrating Diversity Month in Foster Care
Celebrate Diversity Month takes place in April every year, as a time reserved to recognize and better understand our differences, be it gender, race, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation, and other factors, while honoring our shared humanity. By celebrating our similarities and differences, Diversity month aims to give us a greater understanding of others, regardless of their backgrounds and culture.
For that reason, April was the perfect time to launch our booklet highlighting diversity in foster care.
About the Orchard Fostering’s Young Person’s Ambassador Board
At Orchard Fostering we know how important it is to hear young people’s thoughts, views and opinions on decisions and services that affect them. That is why in early 2020 a young person’s ambassador board was set up by members of Orchard Fostering’s social care team, bringing four young people in foster care and four young people who are birth children of foster carers together on a committee.
These young people were between the ages of 8 and 17 years of age and became a voice and advocate for all young people involved with Orchard Fostering.
The first official meeting took place in April 2020 and the young people decided they wanted to call themselves ‘A Young Orchard Voice’. Since the establishment of ‘A Young Orchard’s Voice’, the team have met at least once every month. To date, they have worked on two large-scale projects and have met with the board of directors, the CEO of Tusla, HIQA inspectors and EPIC. EPIC – or Empowering People in Care – are an Irish voluntary organisation, dedicated to advocating for the rights of children and young adults in the care system. Their mission is to ensure that all young people in care can have an empowering experience.
At Orchard Fostering we have plenty of events for foster carers and children all year round. Some of our recent events include fostering fortnight, an annual campaign to raise the profile of fostering and to show how foster care transforms lives, Epic Care Day, a multinational celebration of the rights of young people with experience of care, and last year we held the Summer Day out for foster families.
Following the live event on the 11th of April, Orchard Fostering will also be running an online event on April 12th at 11am. Stay tuned to our blog for more foster care events and activities to get involved in.
And if you’re considering Foster Care or would like more information feel free to contact us today.