Extraordinary Times 2nd Edition

Published 03 Apr 2020

As we end week 2 of the nationwide lockdown, future plans of excitement and travel are now cancelled. Personally, this week means my cancelled MBA graduation, and flying to the USA for a family wedding and holiday. These are, in the bigger picture, trivial matters compared to the national emergency we are collectively experiencing, and all doing our bit by staying at home and keeping up with our hygiene.

Extraordinary Times 2nd Edition

 

But if anything, this protracted time at home is slowly allowing me to enjoy the smaller things in life, my early-in-the-day walks with our now large 1 year old German Shepherd dog, my daughter (now 2) asking for a cuddle (sometimes), and even noticing, pleasantly, plants coming out of their winter hibernation. We should all take stock of the all too easily missed joys in our usually hectic lives; enjoy and savour the sometimes unexpected moments of delight in our days, now more than ever.

That does, of course, not mean that things are any easier, and we know things are extremely challenging at present for all of our foster carers, staff and families. We are developing our resources and working practices to help us all get through this together, and there are some great things to look out for in this newsletter, so make sure you stay tuned to your email and social media for all things Affinity coming through.

Andy Robins, Assistant Director.

 

Education Resources

We have been working hard putting together some educational resources by Key Stage and year group. This is, will be uploaded to our foster carer postal, so it is accessible to our Foster Carers. 

Virtual support and young people groups

As we progress through the pandemic, and we slowly adjust to the new normal, we are planning on trialling some support groups for our carers, and our young people. The first of these is for our young person’s Voices group, who will be meeting up (virtually) next Tuesday, 7th April, which is great news. We look forward to expanding this to other young people and you, our carers.

Foster Carers handbook

Our new Foster Carer Handbook is now ready, after many different versions and updates, and will be uploaded to the website foster carer portal this week.

 

Mindfulness and Self Care

This period of time can, and will, for most of us, be stressful in more than one way. From Supermarket queues and veritable missions to find your usual food; to juggling work and young people in the household; to keeping your young people entertained and not at each other’s throats; to feeling a bit claustrophobic stuck indoors. There’s a lot going on. It is important, however, to make sure you spend time looking after yourself, both physically and mentally. Affinity Foster Carers will be emailed a copy of the Self-Care Newsletter which is well worth a read to help keep you in good health.

 

Social Media

Our social media continues to remain open and providing potentially very useful content, including sites and links for educational matter and interesting activities during this time, on our Instagram page and Facebook page .

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