April 2025 Upper South Caregiver News

Kia ora e te whānau/ Greetings family,

What a wonderful month of March we have had celebrating Foster Care Awareness. I get immense pleasure from events that acknowledge and celebrate the wonderful caregivers that we are so blessed to have.

One of the highlights of my year is always the Excellence in Foster Care Awards, which are awarded to 10 amazing recipients. I am very glad not to be on the judging panel that considers the applications every year because it must be an incredibly difficult process to land on the final 10! You may well relate to the journeys of these incredible caregivers, as many of you walk similar paths.

This year in the Upper South we celebrate three successful Excellence in Foster Care Award recipients – Jo (and the late Pete) Duston from Westport and Cindy Thom from Blenheim. Congratulations, it was such a privilege to share the day and see you receive your well deserved awards at Government House, I hope you enjoyed the occasion.

Pictured below are Jo Duston (centre, left) and Cindy Thom (centre, right) with the Right Hon Dame Cindy Kiro Governor General of New Zealand and Minister for Children Hon Karen Chour. If you’d like to read their stories, please click here.

As part of Foster Care Awareness I also had the pleasure of bringing our Keeping Memories/Life Story events to the region with caregivers from Nelson, Greymouth, Westport and Blenheim attending our workshop, lunch and craft sessions.

This is a particular passion of mine as I have seen, throughout my caregiving journey, the value that these books, journals, scrapbooks and memento boxes have brought to the tamariki/children in our lives. I was so thrilled to see some caregivers begin the Life Story Work with such enthusiasm. I was also very impressed by the progress that many were already making. I would be very keen to continue with a support group to encourage what has been started. Watch this space!

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 this month:

Helping Children Feel Safe – 3 & 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

Nelson coffee group
Monday 28th April 2025, 10am (Please note change of date!)
Tahunanui Community Hub, 55-61 Muritai Street, Nelson

Also keep an eye on our Upper South Support Facebook page for information from me and our Support group meet ups!

If you need someone to talk to feel free to connect with me – phone 027 369 3333 or email uppersouth@caringfamilies.org.nz

My hours of work are 8.30am – 4.30pm Monday to Thursday.

Or you can call our national office 0800 693 323.

Ngā mihi,
Denise