Swansea is preparing to mark Foster Care Fortnight with a series of events to highlight the need for more foster carers here.
It takes place from Monday May 17 to Sunday May 30 across the country and in Swansea it will be celebrated with everything from balloon launches and road shows to a special Mumbles land train.
Swansea Council’s fostering service Foster Swansea hopes the event will help highlight its Make a World of Difference and Foster campaign.
The campaign aims to help people in Swansea discover if they could foster and make a real difference to children’s lives.
Cllr Nick Tregoning, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Social Services, said: “Swansea owes our foster carers a great debt. The love and compassion that they show the children and young people who share their lives and homes is an inspiration.
“We are investing in the recruitment, retention and training of foster carers to ensure children who need to be looked after can benefit from the stable, nurturing, family environment foster care provides.
“I hope people will stop and think whether they can help us Make a World of Difference to children by fostering too. Fostering can be a challenge but our Foster Swansea carers will tell you that it is a tremendously rewarding role too.”
There are approximately 1,900 foster families across Wales and around 170 foster families in Swansea but the Fostering Network estimates there’s still a shortage of at least 750 foster carers across Wales.
There has been a 39% rise in the population of looked-after children in Swansea in the past year alone.
Foster Swansea will launch Foster Fortnight 2010 with a balloon race at Castle Square on Monday May 17.
Foster carers, children and members of the public are being invited to join them in launching 500 balloons in to the sky.
Anyone interested in attending should arrive at Castle Square at 12 noon on Monday.
Events in week two include a roadshow, a land train ride and a treasure hunt.
Kelly Harsant, Business Development Officer within Foster Swansea, said: “We want to encourage those that may be interested in Fostering to contact us and take the next step.”
Anyone interested in fostering is encouraged to contact Foster Swansea by calling 01792 533200 or go to the Foster Swansea website at www.fosterswansea.org
Further details on Foster Care Fortnight nationwide are available at http://www.couldyoufoster.org.uk/fcf
