Evergreen Foster Care evolved as it became apparent, that some children were ready for family life, but unable to move on because traditional foster care did not meet their needs.  We considered and analysed the reasons why these foster placements were not suitable or successful, and consequently developed an innovative, creative package that enables children to thrive and make progress in a family home, when moving from residential care.

This innovative model also meets the needs of children who haven’t been successful in mainstream fostering settings.

 

What makes Evergreen Foster Care DIFFERENT?

  • We can provide our primary foster carers with generous comfort breaks. This helps the whole fostering family to have regular breaks.
  • We appreciate that fostering can be a demanding role, so we offer our foster carers the opportunity to join a therapeutic community.
  • Our fostering families can access support at any time by a team of likeminded professionals.
  • We don’t accept poor practice and we expect the best for our children.
  • We match and introduce our children to their new carers using a system that is robust and nurturing.
  • We pride ourselves on a consistent, therapeutic parenting approach.
  • Our foster carers are given as much information as possible before they commence their fostering journey.
  • We afford our foster carers the same nurturing support as our children.
  • We expect our foster carers to fully committed to the ethos and model of Evergreen Foster Care.
  • We celebrate progress and acknowledge the successes of our foster carers, children, and staff.
  • We have designed our own method for measuring progress and positive outcomes, which keeps our foster carers on track and reminds them of how far they have come.
  • Our fostering carers are assigned a dedicated, consistent supervising social worker who our foster carers can build a relationship and call upon when required.
  • Our foster carers receive professional allowances, so they don’t need to work alongside their fostering responsibilities.
  • We use our own method for managing behaviour which gives a clear guide to foster carers.
  • Our primary foster carers only care for one child, which means they don’t have to care for multiple children with competing needs.
  • Foster carers can access training at any time, so if the needs of the children change, so does the training.
  • All foster carers are provided with dedicated support from a full-time therapist.

 

How do we do this?

Our foster children stay with our comfort break foster carers every other weekend and during school holidays.  Our experience shows this has a positive effect on the wellbeing of, and long-term relationships between, our foster carers and our foster children.

We understand what a big responsibility it is to be a foster carer.  In return for their dedication, support and provision of a loving environment for our foster children, our foster carers receive a professional allowance.

 

What is this allowance?

 

Our full-time foster carers receive over £38,000 per year and our comfort break foster carers receive over £8,000 per year.  In addition, we provide a guaranteed income during a period when our full-time foster carers are without foster children.

We provide professional support for our foster carers.

 

What do we do?

We provide regular therapeutic support at home for all of our foster carers.  In addition, we provide professional telephone advice and guidance service 365 days of the year, 24 hours a day.  This therapy and advice is tailored to each foster child by professionals who know and understand our foster children.

 

If a foster child does not have a school it can place a major strain on a fostering family.  Our foster carers do not need to worry about finding their foster child a suitable school.

  • I have recently attended the pre-approval Skills to Foster Training (July 2020) with Evergreen and i can honestly say that it was really useful. I was nervous at first as i wasn’t 100% sure i wanted to foster but the trainers Louise and Clare really made me feel welcome and at home and they made sure that we had the information we needed to continue with out fostering journey

    Pre-approval training for applicants

    Aged 50

  • I have never known a fostering agency provide some much support to their carers and we can’t wait to become part of the team!

    Evergreen is different

    Aged 60

  • I wasn’t sure about fostering but i liked the idea of becoming a respite carer and see how i got on. Following the pre-approval training (July 2020) i have now changed my mind, and i would like to progress to full time. I haven’t know an agency who offers so many different packages.

    I want to become a foster carer with Evergreen

  • To all the teachers and other people who helped me.

    Thank you for getting me through a school year.

    School Pupil

    Aged 17

  • You are the best school and class that I have ever been in. When I first came to school I was a bit shy but I soon realised that you were all welcoming and very understanding. I absolutely love this school and class and I could never have asked for a better family than you guys.

    School Pupil

    Aged 13

  • I wish Evergreen existed when I lived at Hopedale because they would have supported me and found me the right family to live with. The staff are great because they listen to what you want, and they understand the problems you have had in your life, then they try to give you ways to cope in the future. I lived at Hopedale for 6 years and I was desperate to move into foster care. I hope this gives other children like me, the opportunities I didn’t have.

    Ex-residential pupil

    Aged 16

  • I lived at Hopedale for 4 years and then they helped me to move into foster care. At first I was worried about leaving Hopedale, but I still come to the school and get to see my friends, so I’m very happy with how things have turned out.  I still meet with the therapist once a week so she can continue to help me with my struggles. I like living in a family again.

    Ex- residential pupil

    Aged 13

  • Up until June of this year I had worked with looked after children and care leavers in my capacity as a PA . I have worked with hundreds of children, hundreds of carers, and countless social workers. I was attracted to Evergreen initially as it appeared that everything they were suggesting was truly ground-breaking. My experience was that children began their care experience in
    Foster Care and then if things did not go well, they then were put into residential. Evergreen turned everything I had seen on it’s head. No longer were children expected to sit in this setting for years on end. I was so very excited and became more so when I listened to what they had to say. Evergreen truly care about children. They truly want fabulous outcomes for children. I cannot fault their support of us as K’s carers. They listen, they help us find and consider strategies, they support us in meetings and they are vocal in advocating for K consistently. His welfare remains at the heart of everything that they do. I am just so impressed with them and have the utmost respect for their practice.

    Tracy (Now Fostering With Evergreen)

    Aged 11

  • As an employee at Hopedale I am very excited to hear that Evergreen will be opening soon. Evergreen will open exciting opportunities for some of the children we have living at Hopedale, they will be given the opportunity to be placed with a foster family who will be equipped with the level of knowledge and share the same amount of love that the staff have here at Hopedale for the children. I am looking forward to seeing the children start their new adventures in life, as they deserve the best.

    Employee at Hopedale

  • When I started working at Hopedale, X was one of the first children that I helped to move in. In the last 3 years I have observed his confidence grow and he has developed hobbies and interests, such as theatre school and dance, which I know X was shy about attending at first. However , Hopedale encouraged him to be himself and now he is thriving and absolutely ready to live in a family. X’s foster carers should look forward to the years ahead.

    Currently employee at Hopedale

  • To everyone who went above and beyond for T.

    Thank you so much.

    Social Worker of a young person who lived at Hopedale for 5 years

  • Thank you for taking care of J and supporting his move to his forever family.

    Parent of an ex-residential pupil

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