Laura Peake, a foster carer with MacKillop Family Services, with a picture drawn by one of her foster care children.
LAURA Peake exemplifies how foster carers can come from all types of backgrounds and families.
With no children of her own, she and her partner provide full-time care for three young siblings aged up to six.
Ms Peake, 34, of Warrnambool, said people did not need to have cared for families of their own to take on the role of foster carers.
“It can be younger people like myself,” Ms Peake said. “It can be single people with their own children. There are so many different ways of fostering.”
Ms Peake started off providing respite and short-term care and found it very rewarding.
“It has changed my life for the better.”
Ms Peake originally took in two children as an emergency placement more than three years ago. She has since taken in a third sibling.
“It has given me further perspective to be there for other families and children,” she said.
Ms Peake, who is employed full-time, said she got great support from her parents and siblings to look after the three children.
Ms Peake works for MacKillop Family Services, which this week made an urgent call for more foster carers in Warrnambool in the lead-up to next week’s National Foster Care Week.
“Without enough stable homes for these vulnerable children to stay in, we are having to place them in accommodation which is not ideal for them,” said MacKillop chief executive officer Micaela Cronin.