While important and (often) lifechanging, coming into foster care can be a stressful experience for children and young people.
Foster care may be their first time away from their family home. Regardless of whether they wanted to leave their birth family, entering a foster home for the first time is a new, unfamiliar environment for children and young people. It’s bound to bring up various mixed feelings and anxieties.
S is one our foster children. She and her brothers live with our Compass foster carer, Heidi. As a foster child herself, S knows what it feels like to enter a new foster home.
To help children in foster care settle into their homes, S wrote them a welcome letter! Every foster child at Compass will receive a copy of S’ welcome letter to foster children upon moving in with their foster family and S hopes her letter will reassure and comfort her fellow foster children.
You can read her letter to foster children below.
Hey there! 
I know how it feels right now, maybe you’re feeling scared and excited? Just like I was feeling. I came into care with my brothers and sister and at first, we were rushing through the door (I was 7, my sister was 11, and my brothers were both 6 at the time), but my sister went to another house.
We were so excited and thinking it was kinda cool to meet new people but then I started to think of things I missed… and about my future. I didn’t know what was gonna happen or what my future would look like.
When I met my foster carer Heidi, she was really nice and we did a load of stuff together that maybe I wouldn’t have done if I was at home.
What made a big difference to me was I had to move schools and leaving my best friends behind. BUT I made loads of new friends. They were really kind and helpful. Even though it felt like a loss, I gained so much and so will you.
I missed my mum and family and being able to spend time with her, (and I still do sometimes), and I’m sure you will miss your family too, BUT it’s not as bad as you might think it will be, and hopefully this letter will make you feel a bit better about everything- I wish I had a letter to tell me this too, because it can make a difference to hear it from someone else and to know you’re not the only one.
If you need to talk to someone, talk to your social worker- they will help you! It’s alright to feel this way… YOU WILL BE OKAY!
From S 😊
We absolutely love S’ welcome letter to a foster child and are sure her words will go a long way in reassuring her fellow foster children.
At Compass Fostering, we do everything in our power to help make the moving-in process as seamless and stress-free as possible for our children. Our brilliant foster carers are given the training and knowledge they need to provide outstanding care for our foster children, and we support them every step of the way.
If you think you could make a difference to the life of a child, get in touch with us to find out more about becoming a foster carer with Compass.
