Foster Together

Not everybody celebrates their special day with the arrival of three children, but that’s what happened to our foster carer and ‘birthday boy’, David and his wife, Jessica.

Back in March 2022, David enjoyed his birthday cake with pre-teen and teen siblings, two girls and a boy, who were his and Jessica’s first foster children, staying for five months.

For most of the time since then, the couple have been caring for three under-10s brothers.

With no children of their own, David and Jessica decided to start fostering to help children who didn’t have a “stable home and positive family experiences”.

After being approached by approximately 50 organisations initially, the husband-and-wife team eventually chose the Together Trust as the agency they would like to foster with.

“The trust was very responsive during the whole process”, said David. “There was always someone you could speak to on the phone. It felt more like a family, and we wanted to be with an organisation reasonably local to us.”

Although their fostering experiences have, at times, been “challenging”, David and Jessica both see the benefits. Jessica, who has worked with nursery age children, reflects that the boys living with them have “changed a lot” since they arrived and are “now very settled”.

Good ongoing support and training from the Together Trust has helped the couple flourish in their fostering roles.

Friendships have been made with other foster carers and children on the two annual trust-organised short breaks the family have attended. “The boys made good friends and there were tears on the last day” says Jessica.

David’s advice about choosing a fostering agency is to ‘go with the one you feel most comfortable with”, while Jessica adds “go with your heart”.

In fact, they’ve already recommended the Together Trust, giving a big thumbs-up to the sales assistant who helped them with their sofa purchase!