North Yorkshire fostering families celebrate a happy second birthday
Foster carers in North Yorkshire who form a team that comes together to support children and young people have celebrated their second anniversary.
Foster carers in North Yorkshire who form a team that comes together to support children and young people have celebrated their second anniversary.
The Mockingbird programme, run by Fostering North Yorkshire, is based on the idea that “it takes a village to raise a child”. It uses support from other carers and creates extended families to provide strong support networks to foster carers.
Fostering North Yorkshire’s first Constellation, as the foster families who work together in Mockingbird are known, was launched in Scarborough on 9th March 2019, so is marking its second birthday this month.
North Yorkshire County Councillor Janet Sanderson, Executive Member for Children's Services, said:
“We place a great deal of importance on sibling connections, maintaining placement stability and improving the support provided to our foster carers, which Mockingbird enables us to do. We are very excited that shortly we will be extending Mockingbird into the west of the county.”
To celebrate the anniversary, children, young people and carers took part in an art workshop led by area youth arts coordinator Chris Layfield, who made a giant jigsaw:
Each family was given pieces of the jigsaw to decorate. The decorated pieces were collected and joined into one big artwork created by the whole group, reflecting the Mockingbird philosophy.
Cllr Sanderson added:
“Despite not being able to meet face to face, because of the Covid restrictions, it was so lovely for the families to do something to bring everyone together in this way. The jigsaw will now make its way around all the Mockingbird family homes so the children and young people can have a go at putting it together themselves.”
Mockingbird liaison worker Sophie Turton said:
“A huge thank you and well done to all the families within Mockingbird and, of course, to our dedicated hub home carer, Jan. Watching the support, care and fun you all bring to each other is a true inspiration and is what makes and will continue to make Mockingbird go from strength to strength.”
To find out more about fostering, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/fostering