Adopt Change Mother’s Day Message Highlighted that More Carers are Needed Due to the COVID-19 Crisis
While appearing in the SBS World News report that aired on Mother’s Day eve, Adopt Change supported the likely increased need for carers.
As the country begins to emerge from lock down more will be know about the status of at risk children, as teachers, health workers and community members will again have visibility of children from families under pressure.
Australia, 11 May 2020: Today, following on from the SBS World News story, Adopt Change welcomed the call for more people to step up across Australia to tackle the imminent need for more carers. As families come under increasing strain during the crisis, family and domestic violence is expected to continue to rise, increasing the number of children requiring care.
In addition to this, almost 90% of carers are over the age of 40, placing a large proportion of carers in the high-risk category for the virus. This in turn has discouraged a large number of potential carers from volunteering as they decide to close off their homes for safety reasons.
This phenomenon has resulted in increased pressure on existing younger carers. Samar a 31-yearold carer was quoted as saying, “Every week or so there’s a call for a new child coming in.”
Dr Melissa Kaltner, also on hand for the SBS report, felt that the need for carers would only continue to increase after lock down restrictions were eased, “School teachers, health workers and community members cannot easily monitor child wellbeing, which is likely to temporarily reduce reporting of child abuse [during the lockdown period].”
The CEO of Adopt Change Renee Carter today reiterated her call for more carers, “Now is the time we really need to hear from people who are interested in opening their homes and their hearts to children and young people in need.” Carter also explained the need for carers from a variety of backgrounds and what these carers bring to the community and to children in need, “So when you meet carers and you hear about how many little people they’ve helped, the warm meal, the clean sheets to sleep in at night and the ability to play as a child, those are some of the most healing things that those children can have access to,”.
The SBS World News Episode can be found here
The SBS World News article can be found here
The SBS World News Radio podcast can be found here
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For all media enquiries and interviews with Adopt Change CEO Renée Carter, please contact:
Jonathan Sweet
0400 679 329
media@adoptchange.org.au
Website: www.adoptchange.org.au
Instagram: www.instagram.com/adoptchangeau/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/adoptchangeau
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AdoptChangeAU
About Adopt Change Adopt Change is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to support and educate families and communities in caring for displaced children (including those in foster care or orphaned) to achieve our vision of a world where all children grow, learn, play and thrive in a safe, nurturing and stable environment. We provide support resources, training, education and programs to work towards achieving this goal.
Adopt Change recognises the impacts of impermanency and trauma and we support families through workshops and online resources; research; pre- and post-permanency supports; trauma informed supports; information and community events; as well as working with governments, departments and the sector to address issues surrounding permanency for children.
We work to raise community awareness of the importance of meeting these rights for children; and empower Australians to work towards all children having positive life outcomes. We support capacity building of families to ensure that vulnerable children are able to remain within their family of origin where possible. When that is not possible or safe, we advocate for other timely and permanent options, including adoption.
Adopt Change operates the government-funded program My Forever Family NSW to recruit, train, support and advocate for foster carers, kinship carers, guardians and adoptive parents for children in out of home care in NSW.
National Adoption & Permanency Awareness Month is held during November and is coordinated by Adopt Change to promote improvement to permanency legislation, policy and practice to facilitate a community where a child’s right to stability is prioritised. National Adoption Awareness Week was founded by Deborra-lee Furness in 2008.
About Renée Carter
Renée Carter is the CEO of Australian not for profit Adopt Change, which also operates the program My Forever Family NSW. Renee is also a member of the Institute Advisory Group for the independent research centre Institute of Open Adoption Studies (The University of Sydney) and is Vice Chair of the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care (COAPC).
Renée is a member of Australian Institute of Company Directors, and has a strong background in communications and executive management, along with board level experience in corporate and notfor- profit sectors. Her experience includes three years as Chair of charity Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS), an organisation focused on early intervention, education and support of families and communities; and Managing Director of corporate communications specialists Designate Group.
Renée is passionate about influencing child welfare policy and practice to deliver timely and effective outcomes for children so they can have better childhood experiences and a brighter future, by garnering community, sector and government support.
