Looking for carers for kids

MORE foster carers are needed to support Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in central Victoria, particularly carers who themselves are Aboriginal.

Aboriginal children and young people are over-represented in the child protection system and services say it is ideal for them to be placed, if not with family, then with another member of the Aboriginal community.

Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative home-based care program manager Trina Dalton-Oogjes said putting children with an Aboriginal carer meant they could remain better connected to their culture and their community, which for children coming from broken families and traumatic situations, could feel safer.

Lisa Henderson, home-based care program manager with Anglicare Victoria, said it was natural for carers enmeshed in the Aboriginal community to encourage children to engage with their culture.

They also had cultural knowledge non-Aboriginal carers might not possess, she said.

But Anglicare’s St Luke’s regional director Tom Hadkiss said there were only four Aboriginal families in the region providing care for children at present.

An 18-month investigation into Aboriginal children in out-of-home care across Victoria found 86 per cent were case-managed by a non-Aboriginal agency and more than 60 per cent were placed with a non-Aboriginal carer.

It also revealed that almost half of the non-Indigenous carers had not received cultural awareness training.

Katie Hooper, chief executive officer at the Foster Care Association of Victoria, believes the statewide system has more work to do to support Aboriginal people in becoming carers.

Ms Hooper said agencies needed to look at their systems and consider whether they were culturally sensitive and engaging, particularly given many Aboriginal people had negative experiences with institutions.

When an Aboriginal child cannot be placed with an Aboriginal carer, the carer is encouraged to undertake training to equip them with the necessary cultural understanding.

A cultural support plan was also established, Mrs Henderson said, and the child was monitored by the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency.

Mrs Dalton-Oogjes said BDAC remained in contact with such children through case workers, who would invite carers to bring children to services and to participate in events, to keep them connected.

She also said a support group, for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal carers of Aboriginal children, would soon be formed.

Statewide, the Commission for Children and Young People has recommended that government and agencies involved in out-of-home care implement strategies, including greater employment of Aboriginal people, to improve cultural literacy.