A new foster care program built on the concept, it takes a village to raise a child, is gather momentum in Australia, taking after initiatives in the US. Research reveals the Mockingbird program is improving carer retention allowing displaced siblings to stay together and strengthening social bonds between vulnerable children.
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00:00Julie Critchley has been fostering vulnerable children in the Adelaide Hills for a decade.
00:08It really does change your life, like having a baby changes your life.
00:11She's part of Mockingbird, a supportive new program run by Life Without Barriers
00:16that links up foster families to create an extended family-like environment.
00:21So aunties, uncles, grandmas, granddads, we try and replicate.
00:25So carers and young people have got an opportunity to lean on other people
00:29and have a shared experience for support.
00:31Just being able to talk to people about what's happening in your life,
00:35what's happening in your home with someone who gets it is huge.
00:39Each group of foster families is called a constellation.
00:43We have families within Mockingbird that have kids have sleepovers with other kids
00:48and just sort of normalising all that so that it is like a family.
00:52I guess I'm the grandma.
00:55Adelaide has the most constellations in Australia
00:58with six established in the past three years.
01:01There are also two constellations in New South Wales and Victoria
01:05and there is an appetite for more.
01:07One of the things that we've seen as a benefit of the model
01:10is supporting carers to care for longer, so improving care retention
01:14and also improving placement stability.
01:18Flinders University academic Helen McLaren tracked Mockingbird,
01:22which hails from the US, for two years,
01:25finding it allowed more siblings to be placed in the same home or within a constellation
01:30and created stronger social bonds.
01:33It's really nice to see the children connecting, having friends and being together.
01:37She says foster children can be stigmatised and not accepted at school
01:42but are able to form connections with other kids in their constellation.
01:46For the first time these children were experiencing handing out invitations
01:50and having other children come to their birthday parties.
01:53We've been on a camping trip together, that was fantastic
01:56and we've got another one booked for later on this year.
01:58Rituals every kid should get to enjoy.