Humans of Carey: Erin Boyd

Community Support and Events Co-ordinator

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, I made the decision to leave my career in banking to join Carey in the Community Engagement team. Also, as a family, we decided to become foster carers with Anglicare Victoria.

I had a great childhood. I grew up in a little country town called Prairie about 40 minutes north of Bendigo on a third-generation dairy farm. My memories from my childhood are filled with sport, horses, fun and lots of love. Fast forward to now and I am happily married with my own three beautiful boys (pictured). It’s not lost on us how lucky we are to have the life we have, and it’s hard to hear stories of vulnerable kids in our community who don’t have a safe and supportive environment.

Since we started fostering, we have learnt a lot about ourselves, including about our parenting styles. Even the training and accreditation process was eye-opening: we learnt about cultural awareness and respecting children’s identity, removing bias when dealing with birth parents and managing indicators of childhood trauma.

We have had around 10 placements in total, including emergency placements where we receive a call late at night and the placements are only for a night or two. We have also had longer-term placements, including a six-year-old girl who was with us for three months. We also had a gorgeous two-week-old boy for a couple of weeks – he arrived as a tiny premmie and we were grateful that by the time he left he had put on a decent amount of weight.

I think there’s a misconception that you have to have a large family home or lots of free time in order to foster – you don’t. You just need a safe, supportive and loving home, and a commitment to the wellbeing of the children you’re caring for. When the children are laughing and playing and the stress of their situation isn’t present, that’s what makes our hearts feel full and that what we’re doing is worthwhile.

It hasn’t all been easy, there have definitely been challenging times.

There are times when I have worried about the impact on our own boys and if we have made the right decision, but I think showing them compassion for others and showing them that not everyone is as fortunate as they are is a great lesson.

They love getting the call from the agency and look forward to seeing which little person is going to walk through the door.

You put a lot into fostering, but you get so much more out of it. Being flexible and open to trying new things allowed us to understand what works for our family. We are currently taking emergency and short-term placements, mostly young children and babies, who seem to fit in with our current family dynamic.

For anyone considering it, I’d encourage them to give it a go, or maybe just start by having a look at the educational material online. Even if it’s for just one night, offering a child a supportive environment can make their whole world feel safer and more welcoming.