Get Involved with Abercare

Abercare Family Services always needs a range of volunteers to support children and families in the North and Western regions of Melbourne. Volunteers can become foster carers, disability carers, drivers, volunteers who visit families with young children in their homes or volunteers who help run activity programs for children.

Foster carers

Abercare urgently needs foster carers to provide a happy, safe and secure home for children in Melbourne's cities of Moonee Valley and Brimbank who are unable to remain in their own homes for a variety of reasons. Foster Carers are needed for:

  • Respite Care
    for children to stay with the same caregiver on a regular basis to provide parents with planned breaks.
  • Reception Care
    for children generally in ‘at risk’ situations awaiting Children's Court or Protective Services’ decisions concerning their future.
  • Statutory Care
    for children who need foster care when a family faces a crisis and there are no friends or relatives to provide care during that time.
  • Long Term Care
    for children who cannot return home and are awaiting a permanent placement, or for children whose family cannot resolve its situation in a short period of time.
  • Shared Family Care
    for children with a developmental delay or intellectual disability, whose families are stressed as a result of the extra demands for caring for their child.

Volunteer drivers

Abercare needs Volunteer Driver to play a crucial role in the Foster Care Program by driving children in care to and from visits with their natural parents, school and other activities.

Home Start volunteers

Do you enjoy being with children? Would you like to help a family in your community? Visit a family living in Brimbank with children under the age of five for two hours a week and:

  • provide emotional support and friendship;
  • pass on your parenting strategies to a new mum or dad;
  • play with children;
  • transport families to appointments.

Home Start volunteers provide emotional and practical support to a carefully matched family who may be socially isolated, require assistance with parenting, have experienced postnatal depression or be newly arrived migrants.

All volunteers are offered an eight-week training course prior to being linked with a family and receive ongoing support and training through the Home Start Program.

Disability caregivers / volunteers

Would you like to help a child in your community with a disability? Yes? Abercare needs Caregivers/Volunteers for three different programs:

  • RAP: Provide fun recreation respite on a Saturday;
  • Home Stay: Provide regular, planned overnight respite;
  • Family Options: Provide long term care.

These programs will see Abercare Family Services and the natural family working closely with the caregiver to provide them with all the ongoing training and information they require. Abercare will also be available 24/7 to provide support.

Carers are provided with generous reimbursements for any out of pocket costs.

Volunteer playgroup assistant

Abercare needs a Volunteer Playgroup Assistant to assist the Home-Start Coordinator with planning activities for the playgroup, which is run in Brimbank. You will need to:

  • attend playgroup once a week on a Monday afternoon for 2 hours and participate in activities;
  • provide support to mothers by actively listening and offering advice as needed;
  • play with the children and encourage them to participate in shared play;
  • assist with transport to the group if required.

The Volunteer Playgroup Assistant will be an invaluable member of the Home-Start Team.

For more information on becoming a foster carer or volunteering at Abercare, contact 9373 3800 or send an email to abercare@baptcare.org.au.

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