A fantastic two weeks of celebration
Proud to foster and proud to support fostering. Here is Kevin Williams, The Fostering Network's chief executive, closing statement as Foster Care FortnightTM draws to an end after two fabulous weeks.
It barely seems two minutes since I kicked this year’s Foster Care Fortnight off with my thank you letter to foster families and all those who work with them. And yet, another Foster Care Fortnight – my third as chief executive of The Fostering Network – has flown by.
The theme of this year’s campaign has been ‘proud to foster’ and ‘proud to support fostering’ – and it’s been magnificent seeing the various ways that you have expressed that pride…photos, videos, events, sponsored walks, cream teas, pamper afternoons, media interviews, tweets and so on. There have also been hundreds of articles in newspapers and interviews on TV and radio about fostering, as well as huge engagement on social media – our launch Twitter and Facebook messages reached a massive 2.1 million people on the first morning alone.
The shout has gone up loud and clear that we’re proud of fostering; we’re proud of the transformational power it has in the lives of thousands of children and young people; we’re proud of the impact it has on us, the foster carers and other professionals who work with those children and young people; we’re proud of the difference it makes to our own children. Thank you for being so involved over the last couple of weeks. Together we are raising awareness of fostering and its vital place in our society.
I wrote at the beginning of Foster Care Fortnight that I love these two weeks because it gives us a chance to focus on celebrating foster care. It absolutely does do that…but, of course, what’s important is that we continue to celebrate foster care throughout the year – after all, we’re proud to support fostering every single day – at the same time as working tirelessly to do all we can to make foster care the very best it can be.
Thank you again for our support for Foster Care Fortnight and for what you do for the children and young people in your care.
Kevin Williams
Chief Executive, The Fostering Network
PS If you haven’t seen our Foster Care Fortnight video yet, do have a watch
