Foster carers encourages LGBT+ individuals to consider fostering
To mark LGBT+ History Month, which runs throughout February, our carers, Annabelle and Sally, shared their story on why they started fostering.
Annabelle and her wife, Sally, were approved as foster carers in 2013 and have since provided a loving home for 10 young people on a number of placement types including respite, short term and long term. The couple, who have been married for eight years, are also currently long-term foster carers to three siblings.
The couple had both previously worked in the care sector, including residential care and teaching at a school for children and young people with autism, and knew they wanted to explore fostering at a later point in their careers to support vulnerable children.
Annabelle is now a full-time foster carer while Sally continues to work as a teaching assistant at a specialist school near their home, so she can be close to the family. Annabelle said: “After working in jobs that were devoted to helping children, it made us both want to make a difference to the lives of young people in need. We considered both adoption and fostering, but after looking into it we found that foster care was closer to what we’d been doing in our careers and we were really impressed with the amount of training and support on offer. It felt like the natural next step for us and we haven’t looked back since we started fostering.”
Reflecting on their time with their three foster children, Annabelle said: “Becoming foster parents has been such a rewarding experience for us both. Lots of children can deliberately try and push you away at first as they’ve been through a lot but coming out the other side of that to find them feeling safe and blossoming is an amazing feeling. We’ve seen all of the children we’ve looked after overcome their own obstacles and really thrive with us.”
Speaking about the misconception around members of the LGBT+ community fostering, Annabelle said: “No one should be discouraged from fostering because of their sexuality. Everyone has been so supportive of us and we didn’t experience any barriers when we began our fostering journey. We’d urge anyone considering fostering to not be put off by these misconceptions and to just go for it.”
For more information on fostering as a LGBT+ individual and for fostering queries in general, visit our LGBT Fostering page for more information or contact the enquiries team 0345 266 0272 or email carer.enquiries@five-rivers.org.