Contact our experienced team for a 1:1 conversation about your interest in fostering. We can help you explore how fostering might suit your family context and lifestyle or book a time to chat when both you and your partner/spouse are available.
Our Foster Care Information Pack includes an information booklet, which can help provide you with more information about foster care and the process of becoming a carer. Our booklet outlines the training topics covered throughout the applicant training and what you can expect from your Lutheran Community Care Assessment Worker throughout the assessment process.
You can collect an Information pack from an Information Session, alternatively we can mail an Information Pack to you. For your convenience, you can also download our Foster Carer Information Booklet right here.
Learn more about the journey to becoming a Foster Carer.
Come along to an Information Session
Register for an upcoming Information Session
Information Sessions are a great way to learn more about the role of foster carers, different types of care and to meet one of our current carers. We invite an experienced foster carer along to share some stories about their fostering experience. They can also help answer any questions you might have.
See our Information Session page for upcoming dates and details of our online Information Session webinars. When you register for an Information Session we’ll send you a confirmation email with the URL link and helpful information about joining the online Information Session on the day.
Online Information Sessions during COVID-19
Our commitment to recruiting foster carers for vulnerable children and young people in need remains one of our highest priorities. We are also abiding by the health and social distancing recommendations of SA Health and governing authorities.
Our foster care information sessions are carefully designed and we provide honest and realistic information so that you can make an informed decision about whether fostering may be right for you and your family.
You can decide at any step of the process not to proceed with the assessment and withdraw your interest or application.
To begin the formal process of your foster carer application, we invite you to return your Registration of Interest (ROI) form. This information helps us to understand your situation, experience and expectations and the type of foster care you are interested in giving.
The ROI form and a reply paid envelope is included in our Information Pack.
Caring for children unable to live in their family home is a very special and important role, so choosing the right people for the task is essential. The assessment process involves child-safe screening checks, a series of home interviews and completion of the ‘Shared Stories, Shared Lives’ foster carer training.
When you are allocated an assessment worker, they will contact you to arrange a mutually agreeable time to meet you in your home for the initial information exchange. At this session, your worker can help answer any more questions you have about a foster care application or the assessment process.
The ‘Step by Step’ Assessment Tool is a strength-based assessment where we ask you to provide evidence of your ability to care for children by exploring and working through the following competencies:
A. Information exchange and safety session
B. Attitudes and connections
C. Personal resilience
D. Child-focused nurture
E. Working with others
If you wish to care for an Aboriginal child, you will be required to meet the cultural competency once you have completed the Cultural Competency training. Our Lutheran Care Aboriginal Cultural Worker delivers our training and will work with you to determine your capacity and commitment to care for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child.
We understand that applying to be a foster carer can appear to be a rigorous process. We want to thank you for your patience and understanding of our responsibility to ensure that children and young people are provided with the highest quality of care.
At Lutheran Care we pride ourselves on being a personal, connected and transparent agency, and we serve to help your assessment and training journey run as smooth as possible.
Types of Care
We offer both Generalist and Specialist Foster Care and provide a range of care options that foster carers can choose from. Carers can register for multiple types of care depending on their capacity.
Join us at an upcoming information session to learn more about the process of becoming a foster carer, meet a carer and ask any questions you may have.
Foster carers come from all walks of life to care for children and young people. This includes Singles, Couples (including same-sex couples), families with or without their own children and with or without pets.
We are committed to reconciliation and improving outcomes and opportunities for Aboriginal children in care. We are committed to ensuring that all children in care, regardless of their cultural background and ethnicity, grow up with a strong sense of pride, identity and belonging.
When you become a foster carer, you join a community of like-minded, generous, ever-learning, ever-growing community of loving people. If you would like to learn more and take the next step in your journey we look forward to hearing from you.
It's not always easy, and it's not for everybody.
But it's the best thing we ever did.... we encourage others thinking about fostering to just give it a shot.