Our therapeutic fostering approach is designed for those children who have experienced a difficult start in life and whose development will have been impacted by their experiences. Our goal is to ensure that they develop their emotional, social and educational potential and help them on their journey to recovery.
We provide all the expertise and services needed to ensure our goals are achieved, whilst working alongside other professionals outside of Mosaic. Together we learn to see beyond the presenting behaviour to develop a deeper understanding of how the child’s trauma may be impacting on their life now.
Helping children to recover starts with our comprehensive assessment, where social workers, therapists and foster parents meet weekly for the first eight weeks of a child arriving in the foster home. Together we explore the child’s needs and strengths, using up to date resources for assessing and delivering outcomes over time. This work forms the basis for our recovery plans utilising our SMILE therapeutic model.
Working directly with the children, therapists gain a unique insight that helps to inform both the foster parents and the team supporting the placement. This work ensures that the children have the chance to tell their story in a safe setting.
Whilst many children benefit from having 1:1 therapy tailored to their individual assessed needs all our foster parents receive their own space with therapeutic supervision with their own therapist to help them make sense of the child in their family.
What really makes a difference to the children’s lives are the foster parents who can help them to recover and progress positively from their difficult early experiences.
Children need to find stability with a foster family, to develop a sense of belonging, build boundaries, and experience a consistent home environment. A permanent long-term placement coupled with therapeutic recovery is vital.
Our Registered Fostering Manager Greg de Smidt said:
“Foster parent come from diverse communities. Children need love and support, and people from all backgrounds who can give it to them.”
If you have the desire to bring hope, healing, and laughter to a child in need of a stable and nurturing home, and if you feel you have the qualities required to meet the, at times, challenging demands of bringing a child into your life, you could become a foster parent. There are many opportunities to become a full-time foster parent with Mosaic Foster Care, or to provide respite care at weekends or during school holidays.
Respite care allows the full-time foster parent to take a week or two holiday, or perhaps a weekend away. It may also be used to allow the parent to attend an event that may not be suitable for their foster child. We endeavour to use the same respite foster parents for each child to allow a relationship to build, ensuring the child becomes familiar and comfortable with another care giver and home.
When asked what difference Mosaic Foster Care has had on his life, one of our foster children said:
“A big difference academically: given me social skills I didn’t have before, set goals and achieve them. It’s given me motivation – I’ve gone from not believing I can do things to pretty much being up for anything.”
One of our respite foster parents was asked about her role at Mosaic:
“The best thing about being a respite foster carer is that I get to provide short periods of care to a large and varied selection of our younger people. I may have a 7-year-old girl on respite for a week and spend my time creating craft projects and baking. Then, in contrast, I may have a 16-year-old lad with me for a long weekend and find myself cycling along the seafront and trekking through the woods. There is certainly never a dull or predictable moment in the role of a respite foster carer… and I love it!”
"You were born with the ability to change someone's life. Don't ever waste it."
