Slide 1
Hi everyone. Welcome. My name is
Gabbi Dalsasso and I am from the
Foster Care Association of Victoria.
The Mechanics of Supporting Carers
to Meet Cultural Needs
I would like acknowledge the
Larrakia People, as the Traditional
Owners of the Darwin region. We
pay our respects to their elders past
and present.
Presented by
Betti Gabriel
Gabbi Dalsasso
www.fcav.org.au
I would also like to acknowledge that
the Foster Care Association operates
on the lands of the Wurundjeri
people of the Kulin Nation. We pay
our respect to their Elders, past and
present, and to all traditional
custodians of land throughout
Victoria.
Slide 2
Foster Care Association of Victoria
• 1858 Victorian Foster Carer households
• Support
• Advocacy
• Training
• Information - newsletter, FB, Twitter
2
We are the united voice and peak
body for 4,500 people, representing
nearly 1900 Victorian foster families
and includes foster carers, past and
present, supporters, and sector
colleagues.
Slide 3
3
Slide 4
Victorian Foster Carers
www.facebook.com/fostercarevictoria
4
At the core of our work is a
dedicated team that provides
independent, confidential, one-onone triage and support. We help 600
people a year, so it’s a well utilized
and needed service. Our goal is to
enable and empower our carers with
information or guidance; by standing
by their side at difficult meetings;
mediating on carers’ behalf when
they are unable to get resolution to
a foster care issue, and even simpler
things like creating user-friendly
information sheets. That’s our
support team and office staff up
there – small but packs a punch!
We celebrate foster carers and the
incredible work they do 24/7.
Recently we started profiling our
foster carers on our Facebook page,
where we have a strong presence. So
we use Facebook to celebrate foster
care, and to communicate with the
broader community. Check it out
sometime.
Training is another area we believe is
vital - so that carers are upskilled so
they can stay on top of their game,
and for connection with others in
the sector. This year our training was
focused on grief and loss. A subject
very close to us all, and particularly
speaks to the heart for carers and
their children. For this we,
partnered with all 26 Victorian foster
carer agencies. Over 300 carers, and
200 staff attended and told us they
really valued the learning, sharing
their stories, and being together.
Further we have been able to
arrange for a dozen Victorian foster
carers to be here, at this conference.
Would the Victorian foster carers in
the audience please stand up. You
rock!
And last but not least, we influence
and shape policy at every level for
system improvements. We advocate
on behalf of Vic foster carers to
Government, community service
organisations and the media. For
example, recently our work has
resulted in a much needed increase
in the Victorian foster care
allowance. While it’s a positive step
forward, we continue to lobby for
pay parity with other states, because
it is still too little an amount to cover
care costs.
We champion foster care, we
champion foster carers, and we
champion fostered children.
Slide 5
So, now onto culture.
5
Yep, that’s me up there with my
mum and dad, and my godmother.
My Dad Leon is Italian-born, my
Mum Helen is Rumanian-born and
my Godmother Grete is Austrianborn. They immigrated to Australia
in 1956 and I was born some time
after that.
So in this photo we are at St. Kilda
beach, and in the 60’s it was a ‘wog
paradise’. I believe I am allowed to
say that because I am a wog – see
that’s cultural!
We’d find a shady spot, drape our
towels on the tea trees, and spend
the day swimming and having fun.
Food was always part of it, and
considered ‘exotic’ by others, things
like cold schnitzel, coleslaw, and iced
coffee. Precious memories for me,
that are deep inside me – part of
who I am.
I was lucky to have been brought up
by my parents, because I carry a
whole swag of traditions and
customs that have enriched my life.
Even more fundamental is that their
influence, their culture, helped to
form my identity. And yes, I make
coleslaw and schnitzel just like my
Mum used to do.
Slide 6
But what about children in foster
care?
What about their cultural heritage?
What about foster carers who want
to build positive pathways – to help
develop a child’s identity by taking
into account their cultural heritage?
Questions to keep in mind.
On that note, I’d like you to put your
hands together and give a warm
welcome to my colleague, Betti
Gabriel who has been on a journey
about foster care and culture.
Slide 7
Thanks Gabbi.
Yia sas! That’s hello in Greek.
This is me wearing the National
Greek costume, on my way to march
at the Shrine of Remembrance in
Melbourne to commemorate Greek
Independence Day.
Betti Gabriel
7
My parents migrated to Australia
from Greece in the mid 1960’s, and I
was born in Australia. I too, can
attribute many aspects of my
identity to my culture. My parents
spoke Greek to my sister and I; we
attended Greek school, and
observed significant Greek cultural
events. Like Gabbi, we ate traditional
food from our culture. I remember
many instances where my Australian
friends would come over while we
were eating and say ‘what’s that?’ as
we were eating traditional Greek
food my friends weren’t accustomed
to.
It’s quite timely that I’m here
chatting to you about culture on the
same weekend Darwin is celebrating
Glenti, their annual Greek Festival,
so if you’re interested in learning
more about the Greek culture, food,
wine and music, head down to
bicentennial park today and
tomorrow.
Slide 8
Culture
8
As Gabbi mentioned, culture is a key
aspect of an individual’s identity and
takes on an even more important
role in out of home care. As you can
imagine, because the child/young
person has been removed from all
that is familiar and beloved (even if
it is not stable and safe) it’s even
more important to try and sustain
some normality, and that might be
to continue to connect them with
their culture..
If we think about the transition to
foster care for a child, and wanting
to make that as smooth as possible,
trying to maintain some of the
aspects of that child’s routine/rituals
might help; some of these routines
and rituals might be cultural; they
could include the foods they’re
accustomed to eating, attending a
language school on the weekend,
attending church or other religious
body? If carers have some of this
information they are more able to
support these links for the
child/young person.
At the Foster Care Association, we
have identified that there is a lack of
focus on culture in out of home care;
there is some data collection and
focus on indigenous Australians,
(even though we could probably be
doing better), and we believe it is a
vital component of recovery, reunification, well-being and for a child
to thrive and function effectively
into adulthood. Therefore we are
starting the conversation about how
culture is situated ‘around the care
table’.
Slide 9
Definition of CALD
• CALD - Culturally And Linguistically Diverse
Individuals who were either born overseas
or
whose parents and/or grandparents were born
…overseas and speak a language other than English
9
So what is CALD?
CALD stands for Culturally And
Linguistically Diverse, and refers to
those individuals who were either
born overseas, or whose parents
and/or grandparents were born
overseas, and speak a language
other than English. This our
definition for the purposes of our
project.
If I could ask, how many of you
identify as CALD? Can I see hands
up?
Well, it wasn’t until I began this
project that I identified as CALD. I
believed that CALD meant English
was your second language, so when
my boss asked me if I was CALD, I
said “NO”. When I went away and
researched the meaning, I walked
back into her office and said,
“actually I am CALD”
So, we are advocating for more focus
on culture in order to promote a
positive sense of self, a well-rounded
identity, that includes knowledge
and pride of heritage. In other
words, children and young people
from diverse cultural backgrounds in
care should be supported to develop
and maintain links with their culture,
religion and language.
Slide 10
10
The statistics on migration showed
there were 60,000 migrants
accepted in Vic between 2013-2014.
There’s no data to prove growth in
the number of children in care, from
diverse cultural backgrounds,
however the overall number of Vic
children in OOHC has increased.
(The Australian Bureau of Statistics
report on Migration for 2013-2014.
There were 8,043 children in out-ofhome-care in Victoria between
2014-2015. (DHHS Annual Report
2014-2015)
A survey conducted in 2012 (titled
Cultural Diversity and Child
Protection (Kaur, 2012) indicated
that, of over 10% of the study group
sampled, that is 250 of 2,053
children were from a CALD
background.
The data around the number of
children/young people entering
foster care in Victoria who are born
overseas or have one or both
parents born outside Australia is not
available (either through the
Department of Health and Human
Services referral system or the
placement agency data). Some steps
are currently being taken towards
this; in Victoria we have EDDI, a
customer relationship management
database the 26 Foster Care
Agencies are using to track
prospective enquiries, and this
includes ethnicity of prospective
carers.
Our Support Service team has
identified that culture is as an
unsupported focus within the carer
population; and so applied and was
successful to receive a grant from
the Ian Potter Foundation.
Slide 11
The project goals of the Ian Potter
grant are to:
Project Goals
• Identify the proportion of carers caring for CALD
children
• Identify number using our support service.
• Develop resources to help carers with cultural
information
• Increase cultural competence in the community
11
1. Identify the proportion of carers
caring for children from diverse
cultural backgrounds, and identify
how many of them were using our
support service.
2. Find appropriate resources to
help carers with CALD-related
issues/information.
3. Increase the cultural competence
of our membership, comprising
carers and sector colleagues, and
other interested parties, and our
staff.
So, how did we do it?
Slide 12
Identify the proportion of carers caring for
CALD children and young people
• Consult with Foster Care agencies about their CALD
data
• Mini carer survey:
1. Have you fostered a child or young person in the last
6 months?
2. To the best of your knowledge have you cared for a
child or young person from a different cultural
background, in the last 6 months?
• 90 respondents; 30 caring for CALD children
12
To work towards the first goal of
identifying the proportion of carers
caring for CALD children and young
people, I consulted with Victorian
foster care agencies about recording
cultural data. We were interested in
finding out about what information
agencies collect about the cultural
background of their carers and the
children in care.
I created a mini carer survey which
we distributed via the Association’s
training, website, and social media.
We asked 2 questions:
In the last 6 months:
1. Have you fostered a child or
young person?
2. To the best of your
knowledge have you cared for a child
or young person from a different
cultural background?
Of the 90 carers that completed the
survey, 30 said they were caring for a
child from a different cultural
background. That’s one third of the
respondents!
So maybe it wasn’t a fully random
sample and maybe more carers with
an interest or experience of
children/young person with a
diverse cultural background
responded, but it is still very
significant information for us.
Slide 13
Identify the proportion of callers caring for
CALD children to our Support Service
• Modifications to Database to capture:
- if a carer was caring for a CALD child,
- the number of carers asking us for CALD advice
13
Slide 14
Develop Cultural Resources
• Consulted with organisations specialising in culture
• New information sheets - Cultural Awareness
- Life Story Work
• Ongoing research of cultural holidays
• Information sharing about culture through our
newsletter to over 4,000 members
• Updating our website to include cultural resources.
14
In terms of identifying the
proportion of callers caring for
children from diverse cultural
backgrounds, we have modified our
database to collect that data.
Our support service collects data on
the calls we take from carers, but we
weren’t recording cultural data; now
we have modified our database and
added new fields.
So now, we are collecting
information on the cultural
background of the carer calling, as
well as the cultural background of
the child they’re caring for. We’re
also recording the number of carers
specifically asking us for advice
about culture.
The second goal was to develop
cultural resources, so I consulted
with organisations specialising in
culture E.g.. VMC, VICSEG, CWiMe,
Jatinder Kaur.
Other resources developed include:
• Created an information sheet
about Cultural Awareness and Life
Story Work
• Conducted ongoing research of
cultural holidays; which are added
to FCAV resources; we have
added a link to interfaith calendar
on FCAV website
• New information about culture is
shared through our newsletter to
over 4,000 members.
• Updating our website regularly to
include cultural resources.
Slide 15
I did some research on available
Cultural Awareness training with 6
Foster Care agencies (Anglicare,
OzChild, Salvation Army Westcare,
MacKillop Family Services, Berry
Street Victoria and Baptcare).
Develop Cultural Resources (cont’d)
• Surveyed Foster Care Agencies:
- What cultural competence training do your staff
have access to?
- Is cultural competence training available to carers
through your agency?
• 4 out of 6 agencies responded:
- No consistent cultural awareness training.
- More emphasis on Aboriginal cultural competency
15
The questions asked were:
• 1. What cultural competence
training do agency staff have
access to?
• 2. Is cultural competence training
available to carers through your
agency?
Four agencies responded; Aboriginal
cultural competence training seems
to be mandatory, while there is
some cultural competence training
offered externally and internally at
these 4 agencies. In terms of cultural
competence training being available
to carers, 50% of the responses said,
yes, same as staff while the other
50% said there wasn’t anything
suitable, but were willing to develop
something. So we can see there are
some inconsistencies across
agencies, and even within regions, of
the same agencies.
Slide 16
Increase the cultural competency in the
community- carers contacting the Association
• Carer Survey
• Cultural information and support to carer
• Cultural Postcard
16
The third goal was to:
• Increase the cultural competency
in the community; I conducted a
carer survey over a 2 month
period. There were 101
responses, and I will share our
findings with you shortly
• We provided cultural information
and support to carers calling our
support service, and our cultural
postcard is an example of one of
the resources we developed
Slide 17
Cultural Postcard
17
Slide 18
Increase the cultural competence of
FCAV staff and board
• Cultural Training - External
• Cultural information sheets updated
• Survey- Baseline August 2015
- Follow-Up May 2016
• New CALD information highlighted at team and
staff meetings
• Cultural Training for FCAV staff and board by
Victorian Multicultural Commission
18
• Our postcard has a list of
organisations and the contact
details for further information
with regard to culture. This has
been distributed to all our
member households, and is
handed out at our training
sessions and other events.
• It’s a great little tool, not only for
carers but for agency staff or
anyone to who wants to learn
more about culture.
So the next goal was to increase the
cultural competence of FCAV staff
and board
•
To prepare, I attended a couple
of cultural competence training
sessions myself, so I was
upskilled
•
One of the first things I did was
reviewed our own cultural
resources, and updated them
•
I wanted to find out more
about how confident our staff
felt supporting carers with
cultural enquiries, so I devised
a survey around confidence
and competence for FCAV staff
and board. The survey was
completed in August last year,
and was repeated in May 2016
•
•
Survey Results
Staff Cultural Competence
4.5
4
3.5
Weighted Avergae
Slide 19
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Question 2
Question 3
Baseline
Question 4
Follow-Up
Q2. On a scale of 1-5 how would you rate your current knowledge of different cultures
Q3. How confident are you in supporting carers caring for CALD children?
Q4. How culturally aware would you rate FCAV?
19
so I was able to measure
changes in that timeframe.
New cultural information is
highlighted at team and staff
meetings
Cultural Awareness Training
was held for FCAV staff and
board; this was presented by
the Victorian Multicultural
Commission
So what did our staff have to say?
•
Here is a graph showing the
survey results of our staff; as
we can see there has been a
small increase in the weighted
average of competency levels.
•
When asked how would you
rate your current knowledge of
different cultures, on a scale of
1-5 with 5 being the highest,
the average rating was a 3, but
8 months later it’s closer to a
4; so this shows we’re moving
in the right direction, and
feeling more knowledgeable
than we were 12 months ago
•
When asked how confident are
you in supporting carers caring
for CALD children, the average
rating was 3.25, while in the
follow up survey the average
rating was 3.5
•
Q4. How culturally aware
would you rate FCAV? The
average rating was a 3, while
now it is 3.88, very close to 4.
•
Overall, we have definitely
made some positive steps in
becoming more culturally
competent, and have a higher
awareness of culture within
the association.
Slide 20
Findings
• Data on CALD children in care is currently
scarce/non-existent.
• Carers and agency staff would like to have this
information.
• Carers aware of the importance of a CALD child’s
culture
• Carers are willing, resourceful, and proactive in
accessing information
20
So what did our staff have to say?
•
Here is a graph showing the
survey results of our staff; as
we can see there has been a
small increase in the weighted
average of competency levels.
•
When asked how would you
rate your current knowledge of
different cultures, on a scale of
1-5 with 5 being the highest,
the average rating was a 3, but
8 months later it’s closer to a
4; so this shows we’re moving
in the right direction, and
feeling more knowledgeable
than we were 12 months ago
•
When asked how confident are
you in supporting carers caring
for CALD children, the average
rating was 3.25, while in the
follow up survey the average
rating was 3.5
•
Q4. How culturally aware
would you rate FCAV? The
average rating was a 3, while
now it is 3.88, very close to 4.
•
Overall, we have definitely
made some positive steps in
becoming more culturally
competent, and have a higher
awareness of culture within
the association.
Slide 21
So looking at what carers would rate
their current knowledge of different
cultures, out of 5, most said 3, so
sitting in the middle. This shows we
have a bit more work to do with
supporting carers
Carer Survey Results
On a scale of 1-5 how would you rate your current
knowledge of different cultures
Rating
1 Low
2
3
4
5 High
No. of
Carers
4
10
44
33
10
% of
Carers
3.96%
9.90%
43.56% 32.67%
Total
101
9.9%
21
Slide 22
•
How confident are you in supporting children
from diverse cultural backgrounds?
Rating
1 Low
2
3
4
5 High
No. of
Carers
3
5
31
41
20
% of
Carers
3%
5%
31%
41%
20%
Total
100
“Because I believe in its importance, I will do
whatever is necessary to connect a child to
their culture”
“Experience-what I don't know I will ask about“
“I have some knowledge and know where to
seek more“
22
•
•
•
•
In terms of how confident
carers feel in supporting
children from diverse cultural
backgrounds, most scored
themselves a 4, which is really
good
Some of the comments they
made include:
“Because I believe in its
importance, I will do whatever
is necessary to connect a child
to their culture”
“Experience-what I don't know
I will ask about“
“I have some knowledge and
know where to seek more“
Slide 23
•
What support would you like in relation to
understanding diverse cultures better?
Answer Choices
No. of Carers
% of carers
Specific CALD training
52
54.17%
Information from CSO
37
38.54%
Telephone Support when
required
57
59.38%
Information Sheets
61
63.54%
“I would like their cultural community to visit
our house”
“Information sheets should come with the
child - even for respite / emergency care.”
23
As you can see from the table,
most carers would like information
sheets, followed by telephone
support, as well as some specific
Cultural training. (Training would
have to be local, specific and
accessible; could include webinars
and podcasts).
•
•
Slide 24
Where would you seek support for cultural
issues?
Answer Choices
No. of carers
% of carers
Your community service
agency
71
73.96%
FCAV
37
38.54%
Multicultural agency eg.
MRC, VICSEG
45
46.88%
CWiMe
3
3.13%
Don’t know
13
13.54%
So what support do carers
want, and where do they go to
access this information?
•
24
•
Well at FCAV we can tick the
box for info sheets and
telephone support
In the comments many carers
said having a mentor from the
specific culture would be
helpful
In terms of where carers would
seek support for cultural
issues, most said from their
agency, so it’s really important
that agencies feel wellequipped with the knowledge
and tools to support their
carers;
The second highest response
was a multicultural agency like
VICSEG (Victorian Cooperative
on Children’s Services for
Ethnic Groups)
Slide 25
How culturally aware would you rate
FCAV?
Rating
1 Low
2
3
4
5 High
Total
Average
No. of
carers
3
7
36
25
21
92
3.59
39.13%
27.17%
22.83%
% of
Carers
3.26%
7.61%
25
Slide 26
Where to from here?
• Continue raising awareness
• Ongoing collaboration with sector colleagues
• Continue developing useful resources
• Bottom line: culture to be front-of-mind for carers
and agencies, so our children have the best
possible outcomes, and have a sense of belonging.
26
So we asked carers what they would
rate FCAV on cultural awareness
•
Most carers rated us a 3, so
we’re sitting in the middle,
which shows us there’s room
for improvement; and we
definitely want to embed
culture in our everyday
practice
•
We’re not experts by any
means, and that’s not our goal;
our goal is to raise more of an
awareness of the importance
of culture in a child’s life and
get carers and agencies
thinking more about the
impact of embedding culture in
their practice
So where to from here?
•
Well we have just started on
this journey and want to
continue raising awareness
about the importance of
culture for children and young
people from CALD
backgrounds; through ongoing
collaboration with sector
colleagues, by showcasing
culture at sector events, and
advocating to ensure data is
collected and shared;
•
We want to continue to
develop useful resources to the
Foster Care Association’s
resources, and to deliver these
resources in ways that are
suitable to our members.
The bottom line is that we want
culture to be front-of-mind for carers
and agencies, so our children have
the best possible outcomes, and
have a sense of belonging.
To illustrate the above-mentioned, I
thought it would be good to hear from
carers themselves, who have cared for
children from CALD backgrounds
Slide 27

Case Study

27



Jane has a 3 year old in her
care, we’ll call her Violet; birth
mother is Chinese; Birth father
is African (from Eritrea)
Violet has contact with her
Chinese relatives, and so has
exposure to the Chinese
culture; however has no
contact or exposure to Eritrean
culture
Jane would like Violet to be
exposed to the Eritrean
culture, so she has an
awareness of where she comes
from. She doesn’t want her to
miss out.
When Violet was placed with
Jane, Jane was not told of
Violet’s cultural background;
she came across it on Violet’s
birth certificate. Jane was
familiar with some aspects of
the Chinese culture, but had no
knowledge of the Eritrean
culture, but was willing to find
out.
Jane contacted FCAV and I was
able to put her in touch with a
Bi-cultural worker from ‘Save
the Children’, where Jane
could ask her questions about
the culture, and learn some
phrases in the native language



Slide 28
I was also able to connect her
with the Eritrean Community
of Melbourne, who hold
weekly get-togethers every
Saturday night; they would
keep her informed of future
cultural events also
I was able to provide her with
details of an Eritrean
playgroup, as well as a website
where she could borrow bilingual books
When I asked Jane what would
have been helpful in the first
instance when Violet was
placed in her care, she said:
having information about the
country, the culture, religion,
some words in that language
and some stories.
So, what this case-study highlights
for me, is that carers need more
information to come with the child
before they are placed in their care
so that carers feel more prepared to
meet the cultural requirements of
the child.
Final Words
• Carers need more information so that they feel
more prepared to meet the cultural requirements
of the child
• Conclusion
1. Don’t make assumptions
2. Ask questions
28
The two things I’d like you to take
away is:
1. Don’t make assumptions
2. Ask questions
Slide 29
Questions
29
Slide 30
Contact
Betti Gabriel
[email protected]
www.fcav.org.au
Phone: (03) 9416 4292
30