April 2025 Central North Caregiver News

I had the pleasure of attending the Excellence in Foster Care Awards at Government House in Wellington last month – we celebrated the amazing contributions of ten caregivers from across the country, one of whom was from the Waikato, Letitia Dowie-Lewis. Following the awards, Letitia spoke to the Waikato Times about life as a caregiver – click here to read more about her story.

While this awards ceremony acknowledged a small number of caregivers across New Zealand, I know that each of you play an essential role in your children’s lives and go above and beyond to make sure they feel loved and have what they need to feel connected and be the best they can be. Thank you for who you are and what you do for the tamariki and rangatahi in your care!

Events

Foster Care Awareness Week
Congratulations to the winners of the Central North Facebook group giveaway during the first week of March. Karen Cole and Madeleine Quintal took away some goodies from L’Oréal in appreciation of what they are doing.

I am in the process of planning a road trip across the Central North region during the month of May; please keep an eye on your emails and the Central North and Auckland South Facebook groups for updates on when I might be coming to a place near you. Scroll down for links to our Facebook Groups. 

If you’d like to see an event or get-together in your area, please feel free to reach out and share your ideas.

training

I am delighted to announce that in Term Two we will launch our much-anticipated new self-directed learning platform. This has been developed in response to feedback from you about making training more accessible for everyone to take part in. To find out more about the first two courses we are releasing, please click here.

We also have our last facilitated online training on our old platform this month.

Helping Children Feel Safe – Thursday 3 & Friday 4 April
The emotional age of some tamariki growing up in care can be very different from their actual age. Lisa, our Canterbury Regional Coordinator will host this workshop over two 1.5 hour sessions, helping you to learn more about therapeutic parenting and how to use structure and supervision to help a child feel secure.

To find out more and register, please click here.

support

Do you live in Tokoroa or Rotorua? We are getting ready to launch a couple of caregiver catch up groups in each of these locations. If you are interested in coming along to the first get together later this year, please indicate your interest by emailing centralnorth@caringfamilies.org.nz. These groups will be open to anyone wanting to meet others from their local area and are keen to be linked with some great information and resources to help their caregiving journey.

We also have a support group meeting in Hamilton this month.

Hamilton Support Group

Meeting at Punnet Café (in the Garden Shed outdoor meeting room), 337 Newell Road Tamahere 3283
Next meeting dates – Wednesday 2 April then Wednesday 7 May, 10am
RSVP to Vanessa (available via text on 022 641 7763)

I will be monitoring and updating the following Caring Families Aotearoa Facebook Support Pages; Auckland South Support and Central North Support. Please note that if you live in Tauranga and along the Coast of the Bay of Plenty you will need to remove yourself from Central North and ask to join the North East Support group. This will mean everyone can continue to receive information, resources and support relevant to their region.

If you need someone to talk to feel free to connect with me, you can call/text me on 027 501 0393 or reach out via email to centralnorth@caringfamilies.org.nz

My hours of work are 9am – 5pm (Monday to Thursday) and 9am-2:30pm (Friday)

I look forward to either seeing you or hearing from you. Take care of yourself!

Christie