Foster Carers’ heartfelt poem video shines spotlight on how fostering changes lives

Redbridge council

A video poem produced by foster carers in London has been published to shine a spotlight on the need for more foster parents.

Foster Carers in Redbridge teamed up virtually to record the heartfelt video poem in time for ‘Foster Care Fortnight’ - which ends on May 23.

The short film, dubbed ‘Why We Care’ also aims to highlight how fostering helps change children’s lives.

Currently there are only 42 foster care households working with Redbridge Council but the borough, and London, need more, a spokesperson told the Standard.

The borough is not alone in its plea as the Barking and Dagenham authority also appealed to its community and urged people to sign up and care for a child in need.

Voiced by 12 of the borough’s foster carers, the video featured Tracy Bishop, who has been fostering for nearly four years. 

The 52-year-old, said: “I always knew fostering was going to be a big part of our lives. It has been in our hearts as a family for a long time, so when we were finally able to make it happen we grabbed the opportunity.

Jake Riley, 19, has been in foster care since he was 5, and with the same Redbridge foster family since the age of 6. 

The budding doctor, is currently studying Medicine at a leading London university. 

He said: “I feel really lucky, and have such a strong bond with my foster family. It seems silly calling them my foster family – to me they are my real family.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in