August 2024 Caregiver News: Auckland Region

It’s been a varied couple of months with Matariki and school holidays in the mix too – how are you doing? As we head towards Spring, I am looking forward to attending Picking Up the PACE, the Caring Families Aotearoa National Conference in Christchurch. I am keeping my ear out for Sarah Naish’s talk about her newest book, The A-Z of Survival Strategies (From Chaos to Cake) – Sarah always brings a lot of opportunities to laugh and learn from her lived experience as a foster caregiver and adoptive parent. I’m sure this will be the case when she explores the common challenges and feelings experienced by therapeutic parents and offers a range of practical strategies to help caregivers cope and survive. If you’re unable to make it to conference, but keen to learn more, here’s a great intro video about Sarah Naish’s approach to therapeutic parenting: What is Therapeutic Parenting? (youtube.com)

Training

The special focus for training in Term 3 is Difficult Behaviours (Managing Confrontation and Intimidating Interactions). If you want to be reminded that you are not the ‘only one’ navigating a range of situations within your caregiving journey and to explore how to avoid being pulled into confrontations with your tamariki or rangatahi, this course is for you.

The next in-person session is on Thursday 8 August 9:30am-1:00pm at Onehunga Community Centre. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

If you’d like to see an in-person training in your local area, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to share where you’d like to attend and what days/times would work best for you.

If you’d prefer to attend a training session from the comfort of your sofa, with a hot cuppa in hand, we have plenty of online training options available for you. Check out the full list of upcoming sessions below.

EVENTS

L’Oréal for Youth is taking place on 9th and 10th October. Formerly called Face Your Future, L’Oréal for Youth is an inspiring two-day camp for care-experienced rangatahi (young people) aged 16-18 years. There is still time to nominate your young person, click below for more.

We have also opened nominations for our Excellence in Foster Care Awards. Do you know an extraordinary caregiver in your community that deserves to be recognised for their incredible mahi (work)? These awards are a highlight on our calendar, recognising those amazing caregivers out there, and they are hosted in collaboration with Barnardos, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Open Home Foundation and Kia Puāwai.

To nominate a caregiver today and find out more about the awards please click below.

If you need any support or just to talk please do not hesitate to contact me!  Also, don’t forget our closed private Facebook page which can offer support. Please click here to register and also see the latest news about upcoming support group catch-ups, events and Training.

Tiaki i a koutou anō, look after yourselves!

Christie