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Foster Bear celebrates first birthday!

Published: 29/02/2024

Foster Wales Flintshire hosted a very special birthday party this month to celebrate a year since the launch of their innovative Foster Bear Campaign.  

Local foster carers and children were invited to attend the party and gathered to play games, create crafts and celebrate Foster Bear’s first birthday.

It was a pleasure to also welcome Christine Jones, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Services and Neil Ayling, Chief Officer for Social Services, to the event.

Councillor Jones said: “Foster Bear has been a fabulous initiative, ensuring that foster care is better understood to encourage more potential foster carers to come forward. We would like to wish Foster Bear a happy first birthday! We were so pleased to have been part of the celebrations and to have met some of our amazing foster carers and young people.”

The Foster Bear Campaign was launched in January 2023 in collaboration with Primary Schools across Flintshire to raise awareness of local authority fostering and outline the urgency to recruit more foster carers in Flintshire. 

So far, thirteen primary schools in Flintshire have welcomed Foster Bear into their classrooms, and children are given an activity pack that contains a Foster Bear teddy and activity book to take home. The campaign educates children and their families about local authority fostering and the benefits of looked after children staying local. 

If you would like more information about fostering with your local authority in Flintshire or are a primary school and would like to find out more about the Foster Bear initiative, please contact melissa.cross@flintshire.gov.uk or visit www.fosterwales.flintshire.gov.uk/fosterbear