Brighter Futures for Children’s fostering team is embarking on a huge campaign during Foster Care Fortnight to encourage more people to become foster carers in Reading.

‘We want everyone in Reading to support our campaign to keep as many of the children who come into our care local,’ said Brighter Futures for Children’s Managing Director Antony Kildare.

‘While it is sometimes appropriate to move a child or children away from Reading for safeguarding reasons, we occasionally find that we have to place children outside Reading because we don’t have a large enough pool of foster carers in the town to meet their needs,’ he added.

‘This can mean that siblings need to be separated or children have to move schools or away from their friends, which makes their time in care more difficult than it needs to be,’ said Mr Kildare.

‘So we’ve embarked on a community campaign to get everyone in Reading behind it to find more local foster carers who can help prevent this from happening.

‘This situation isn’t unique to us because there’s a national shortage of foster carers. We are taking time during Foster Care Fortnight to spread the word about the rewards of fostering and dispel the myths that prevent some people from finding out more about it,’ he added.

Brighter Futures for Children has a strong social media strand to the campaign, is attending local events, distributing posters for people to put up in their places of work and even large display screen adverts at Reading Station, thanks to the generosity of Maxx Media, who gave the space to the not-for-profit company for free.

‘We’ve been delighted with the community support and partner engagement we’ve had so far but we need everyone to get behind this to help us find more extraordinary people like those who currently make up our fostering family.

‘So, if you think you could help us and if you think you could foster, or know someone who could, please get in touch. We can’t wait to hear from you,’ he said.

Visit the website at www.brighterfuturesforchildren, call 0118 469 3020 or email foster@brighterfuturesforchildren.org to find out more.