The faces behind Centacare Foster Care’s new recruitment campaign have gone on show at the Department for Child Protection.
The exhibition, which opened yesterday in Flinders St, offers a unique insight into the reasons why children come into care, and aims to raise awareness of the need for more foster carers and the different types of care households can provide.
Seventeen fictitious characters including carers, children and even a pet dog make up a ‘circle of care’ to symbolise Centacare’s child-focused practice, and the care team that wraps around each foster family to train and support them on every step of their journey.
“We really wanted to represent key themes of why children may come into care, as well as what motivates people in community to put their hand up and join our team as foster carers,’’ Centacare Foster Care Manager Amalie Mannik said.
The characters were illustrated by Quisk web designer Denham Haynes, who worked closely with Centacare to develop their traits and back stories.
“Storytelling is a powerful medium and resonates with people from all different backgrounds and cultures,’’ Amalie said.
“Stories are not only tools we can use for training and learning, they can also be very healing and we hope our circle of care enables stories to come to the forefront. “
Centacare Foster Care provides immediate, short-term, long-term and respite care for children from birth until adulthood.
The process of becoming a foster carer can take between three to five months from application through to approval.
The exhibition runs until Friday, March 12.
