Women that WOW

This year, for international women’s day, we’re shining the spotlight on our very own wonder-woman, a member of the WOW team who has made it her personal mission to give some of these children the support they need.

“Every child placed for adoption will have a unique set of experiences that will shape their understanding and identity. All have experienced a level of trauma and separation, even children who have been in foster care from birth. Many will have had an unsettled or chaotic start in life, and may have suffered neglect or abuse in their early months and years. All of this will affect each child throughout their life, in different ways at different times.” - Home For Good

We asked Krystell how her birth children have adjusted to having new family members, “My children adjusted to sharing us with other children quite quickly. My youngest is happier with other children in the house that he can play with and create lots of noise.” Since opening her home to foster children back in 2021, the shortest time a child has stayed with Krystell’s family was just four weeks over a Christmas period, and the longest stay has been the three kids she has with her family now, who have been with them for 13 months - three siblings, aged one, four and seven. Krystell can take up to three children at any one time, and to date has cared for 6 children between the ages of 6 months to 12 years old, however, she can take children up to the age of 17 which is the oldest anyone can offer children in need a home.

When social workers feel that adoption is in the best interests of the child, the local authority, Lancashire in Krystell’s case, will apply to the family court for a placement order, which allows them to seek an adoptive family for the child. Krystell says, “Being a foster carer gives me a sense of achievement, I know I am making a positive difference in a young person's life and even though it may be a small part of their growth, I hope that small part is a happy memory. We don’t just open our home but also our hearts, it’s not just me who is fostering, it’s our whole family, including our extended family, everyone welcomes the children we care for as if they were our own.”

In some cases, children may be placed for adoption at the request of, or in agreement with, their birth parents, but in most cases, the children are placed following court processes whereby the parental rights and responsibilities are removed from their birth parents. Krystell explains, “One of the biggest challenges has been learning to work with children that have experienced trauma. Trauma can be very complex, so it’s not easy to learn - it takes a lot of understanding and training to be the best you can be, to support the children in the best way possible.”

Krystell explains, “Emergency cases are seeking somewhere safe to place a child whilst social workers assess the future of the child(ren) through court and decide whether they will go into long-term foster care, for adoption or reunification back with their birth parent(s). So it's implicit that we support family time throughout a child’s stay with us to ensure a strong bond with their birth family is maintained, incase the outcome is that they will go back home.”