When Daniel Airey met his partner Andrew Grey’s parents, who have been fostering children for 20 years, he thought, ‘I want to do that one day’.
Daniel, 22, and Andrew, 24, live in Sunbury and have been foster and emergency carers for 11 months now – this Foster Care Week is all about celebrating people like them and encouraging others to get involved.
The 2022 theme of the week, running September 11 to 17, is ‘p=Play a part’, to inspire people to take steps towards foster caring.
The pair are some of the youngest foster carers working with Anglicare and Daniel said while it had been a “challenging” learning experience, it was also “incredibly rewarding”.
“I love seeing the milestones in the kids and the changes… even if it’s only small, it’s huge in our eyes,” he said.
“Because if they come and they’re really reserved and really quiet and then they open up, it’s huge.”
It was during lockdown, when Daniel was at home because he couldn’t go into work at his retail job, that the couple decided to put in an application to become carers.
Prior to meeting Andrew’s parents, he said foster caring hadn’t crossed his mind as an option for becoming a parent, particularly as a gay couple.
“I always thought adoption was our only option, except there’s other options out there, and fostering is one of them,” he said.
“I do feel incredibly proud.”
The couple applied to a lot of different agencies before they were accepted by Anglicare.
Daniel and Andrew decided to foster with Anglicare because equality seemed central to its work – “I thought, I want to be in an organisation that looks at us the same as everyone else,” Daniel said.
There are a range of events and celebrations happening across Foster Care Week, including a live stream event on September 14, for people to meet and get to know more about carers and agencies.
Daniel said even if people are “on the fence” about becoming carers, to just go to the information sessions and find out more was a great first step.
“Ask questions. It doesn’t hurt, there’s heaps of people we meet who say, ‘I want to foster, I always wanted to’, and they haven’t,” he said.
“Well it’s nice to have that idea, but you actually have to move in and do it, because there’s heaps of kids out there who need homes.”
Details: fosteringconnections.com.au/foster-care-week-2022.
Elsie Lange
