Here are our most frequently asked questions from foster & kinship families. If you have a question and can’t find the answer below, please email us at youparties@qb.org.au (or head to our Contact Us page) – we’d love to hear from you!
- Why children in Out-Of-Home Care? Can You Parties be for any child?
- Yes! You Parties can be used as a resource to celebrate any children! Biological, adopted, special-needs, foster or kinship-care children, and grandchildren. Each of the elements of the party enable you, their family, to demonstrate love, encouragement, build connection & nurture children in ways they need.
- Specifically, You Parties have been designed to celebrate children living in out-of-home care, or children from hard places. We know these children need extra comfort, nurturing and care to know they are safe, to know they belong and to feel loved and valued as a member of your family. You Parties are designed to help you encourage, affirm and demonstrate love to them, as well as provide opportunities to build connections with your child.
- I think a party might be overwhelming for my child. Are You Parties Trauma-Informed? If so, how?
- Yes, You Parties are trauma-informed. We worked with child psychologists, child trauma specialists, foster families and family therapists to bring these You Parties kits & all their elements together.
- Each of the resources in the party kit, such as the Happy You Day Cards, purpose game You Cards, and the You Book were collaborative efforts written with these specialists. They offer ways to encourage, build connection & affirm your child in ways they need to hear to bring about healing.
- The You Parties team is prompted throughout the guide to check with you, the child’s family, about which of the party elements to include and exclude. There are prompts to check in with trauma-triggers, allergies and dietary requirements.
- This means that each party can be uniquely designed to meet the needs of your child. So, if you’d like your You Party to be a quiet affair around the dinner table with immediate family only, that’s okay. The You Parties team can facilitate this. (See our next question/answer on ‘flexible options’.)
- My child’s needs are very specific, how can I have a You Party? Are You Parties flexible in their options?
- Yes! You get to decide everything. We know that foster & kinship parents are the ones who know their child’s felt-needs best. So, during your first ‘meet up’ with the You Parties team leader, they will discuss all the options you can choose from. (Games, Purpose Games, Cake, Words of Encouragement, music etc) That means, if you’d like to have small dinner party, or a family picnic in the park, they can make it happen!
- You have control over who is at the party. The role of the You Parties team is to work in the background to make the party happen. We know that the nature of foster care means that children often have important people come in and out of their lives. For this reason, you are free to choose to have whoever you think is most important to the child at the party. This can be (but doesn’t have to be) birth family, extended family, other significant carers or adults, school friends or simply immediate family members.
- You can choose what to celebrate. The reason they are called ‘You Parties’ is so that we can celebrate however you like! It can be a birthday, an anniversary of some kind, or even just to celebrate a small achievement for your child. A You Party is designed to remind children that they are worth celebrating, just for being who they are! There are age-appropriate options for the party elements to choose from, and the theme of the party is completely up to you and your child.
- Wouldn’t something like practical support be a better idea for foster families? How is a You Party helpful for our family?
- We know that children living in out-of-home care need extra help to know they are safe, loved and valued, so we believe that You Parties provides an important platform for encouragement and belonging, as well as opportunities to build connections & nurture them in an intentional, fun way.
- Some children won’t like the spotlight, and that’s okay! For many children however, a You Party may be the first time they have been celebrated for being uniquely ‘them’. A You Party is full of ways to communicate with positive reinforcement and encouragement from their family. Celebrating children in this way has strengthened the self-worth and security within the family. You can read some testimonials from our You Parties families here.
- You Parties are designed to build a bridge for churches & teams to be able to use in building supportive relationships with foster families. Once a team has met with and connected with your family, there are many more ways they can provide support. It is our hope that the local churches become communities of support for many foster families, and help with practical needs, too, such as doing loads of washing, providing meals or baby-sitting, as well as provide support networks for foster parents & their families.
