Airport West foster carers welcome more than 100 children into their home
A couple has been recognised for decades of dedication to looking after children with nowhere to go.
North West
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Down a quiet street in Airport West is a house where one couple has cared for more than 100 children.
There are five hungry chooks, a guinea pig and a trampoline in the backyard.
Cheryl and Arthur Brown wanted six children, but after finding out they couldn’t have their own, they became foster parents.
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Mrs Brown said the average amount of time someone remained a foster parent was five years, but the couple have been called “Mummy Cheryl” and “Daddy Arthur” for 36 years.
Their dedication won them a joint Moonee Valley Citizen of the Year award.
They are now in their 70s but continue to care for children. Most of them are babies; from a few days to a few months old. The oldest they welcomed into their home was a six-year-old girl.
Picture: Ian Currie
One little girl lived with them until she was four before being adopted.
“She used to call us at night and say ‘I want to come back home’,” Mrs Brown said.
When they started fostering, many of the babies came from young mothers who believed they couldn’t care for their children.
“There was social pressure and a stigma associated with young mothers,” Mrs Brown said.
More recently, the main reason children are put in foster care is neglect and mental illness.
Many babies come from drug-addicted mothers, who pass their addictions onto their unborn children.
One baby girl came to the couple severely addicted to drugs. A nurse came to their house every day to check on her.
“She was like a wild kitten,” Mrs Brown said. “She didn’t like it when you held her.”
The key to it all, Mrs Brown said, was “patience and a sense of humour”.
They consider every child they care for as a son or daughter.
Many, if not all, have stayed in touch with Mr and Mrs Brown well into adulthood.
FOSTER CARE IN CRISIS
MacKillop Family Services manager Jasmine Perry said there was a critical lack of foster parents in Victoria.
According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, there had been almost a 50 per cent increase in the number of children in out-of-home care in the past five years in Victoria, compared to 2.5 per cent in NSW and 21 per cent in Western Australia.
”There are about 10,000 children in Victoria in out-of-home care,” Ms Perry said.
“There’s a lot of awareness in our community now around what child abuse and neglect looks like. Fifty years ago if you heard your neighbour had issues, you didn’t get involved.”
That mentality has shifted and doctors, nurses and teachers, who are reporting neglect and abuse more often.
Recently, the main reasons children were placed in out-of-home care was the high cost of living, mental health illness and alcoholism.
When kinship carers could not be found for a child they went into foster care, but if no foster parents were available the children were looked after by agency staff.
Ms Perry said kids living with staff was almost unheard of 10 years ago.
“A number of children live in the same home with typically two staff members. They stay there until we can find foster careers for them but that system is being stretched,” she said.
More than 80 per cent of children in care nationally were in care for more than a year, and 40 per cent of those children were in care for more than five years.
Most of the children in care were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
As of June 30 last year, almost 59 per 1000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were in out-of-home care.
Ms Perry said there was “a never-ending need” for more foster parents.
“We have carers coming in but have just as many who are leaving.”
She said 500 new carers would alleviate a huge amount of pressure on existing carers who were at risk of dropping out of the system because of burn out.
People can learn more at mackillop.org.au/fostercare
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