I have been working for Fostertalk as one of the Fosterline and Fostertalk helpline advisors since January 2017 where I remain in post on a part time basis working Monday to Thursday. I love my job and being able to support prospective foster carers and approved foster carers with any advice needed and giving options that may best support them.
Previous job:
I qualified as a social worker in 1999 working the majority of my social work career firstly as a Fostering Supervising Social Worker and later as a Fostering Team Manager for over 13 years. This included initially supporting approved foster carer caring for disabled foster children and later supporting and then managing several fostering services merging into one generic team. I developed and managed a short break service successfully biding for aiming high funding to set up and provide additional one to one activity services and youth club for disabled children. This service included offering overnight shortbreaks for foster carers and parents. Within this same service I managed supervising social workers supporting foster carers with long term and short-term foster placements who were caring for developmentally traumatised children. I also managed and operated the foster carers out of hour’s helpline for the West Midlands region.
I have worked within other independent fostering agencies with one specialising a therapeutic parenting approach – an intervention model to support foster carers parenting children with attachment difficulties I attained level 1 & 2 DDP and found this intervention a model useful using PACE in understanding attachment issues and a way of thinking, feeling, communicating and behaving that aims to make the child feel safe.
Before becoming a social worker, I owned and managed several of my own businesses, worked within various specialist education establishments with young people and pre-school children who had been excluded from mainstream schools and nurseries who presented with emotional and behavioural difficulties and also was a youth worker. Within these special educational services, I supported the children integrating back into mainstream schools.
What attracted you to FosterLine:
I was drawn to apply for the Fosterline advisor role as I felt I had the experience and knowledge that may support prospective foster carers and existing foster carers in any queries they may have or support they may need. I am passionate about providing foster carers the right support and believe foster carers have a unique role and deserve whatever advice that is available to them to support them caring for their foster children. It feels almost that everything in my fostering career has led me to my current role as a fostering advisor and I get a great deal of job satisfaction when I hear a foster carer say ‘I feel better now and now know what options are available to me to move forward’.
Favourite pet:
I do not have a pet currently but love dogs, having Yorkshire terriers in the past that had a long life with our family and a poodle when I was growing up in Florida. I miss the unconditional love a dog gives to a family and laughing at their animal antics. We do have regular visits from our next-door neighbour’s cat, Bill who likes to visit us daily particularly when he smells bacon cooking LOL.
Favourite food: I absolutely love Italian food and particularly the Italian accent as well! ‘Amo il cibo italiano’.
Dislikes: There is not much I do not like but feel everyone should always be kind to each other and support anyone who is feeling down or discouraged. I suppose I don’t like to eat Kale or cooked spinach, yuck!
Strange fact about yourself: Not sure if it is strange or not, but my father was an American service man, so I have American citizenship and I have lived in lots of different countries, born in France but can’t speak a word, and grew up in Mississippi and Florida before I moved to England at age 16 years. I have raised my own two children in England as a single parent until I met my husband being married for 10 years where we enjoy spending time with our four grandchildren.
I look forward to continuing to support and offer advice to prospective foster carers and existing foster carers along with my colleagues and look forward to speaking with any foster carers who phone through and will do my best to support you in any way I can.