Some links you may find useful for more information about care for children who can't live at home are detailed below.

Foster Care Association of Victoria (FCAV)

This association is run by and for Foster Carers to represent the interests of all Foster Carers in Victoria.
www.fcav.org

Australian Foster Care Association

This is the association which represents all Foster Carers in Australia.
www.fostercare.org.au

International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO)

This is the international association for foster care agencies around the world.
www.ifco.info

Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA)

This is the lead agency for broad Aboriginal child and family welfare work in Victoria.
www.vacca.org

Lakidjeka

This is VACCA's Aboriginal Child Specialist Advice and Support Service (ACSASS).  It provides an Indigenous perspective to Child Protection about the best ways of keeping Aboriginal children and young people safe.
www.vacca.org/01_program/lakidjeka_acsass.html

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare

This is the peak body for community organisations delivering child and family support and welfare services in Victoria.
www.cwav.asn.au

The Centre runs the Victorian foster carer recruitment service.  There are over 30 different agencies in Victoria funded by the Department of Human Services to provide foster care.  Foster Carers belong to their local agency, which the Centre can direct prospective carers to.
www.cwav.asn.au/foster/

Create

This is the agency for children and young people in care in Australia.
www.create.org.au

Connections

Uniting Care Connections provides adoption and permanent care service in the Southern Metropolitan Region.
www.connections.org.au

Centacare

Centacare Catholic Family Services provides adoption and permanent care service in Victoria.
www.centacaremelbourne.org

DHS - Adoption and Permanent Care

www.office-for-children.vic.gov.au/adoption-permanent-care/the_adoption_and_permanent_care_program

Adoption is the process by which a child legally becomes a member of the adopting family.  The child is voluntarily put up for adoption by the birth parent/s.  The child's name changes and a new birth certificate is issued, and inheritance rights are the same as if the child was actually born into that family.

Permanent care, is a legal arrangement in which the child lives permanently with a family that becomes responsible for his or her custody and guardianship.  Children come into permanent care after being removed by Child Protection from their birth parent/s due to abuse or neglect.  Carers make a permanent commitment to the child placed in their care, and the bonds of love and affection formed between children and their permanent parents are as strong as those formed in adoptions.

Would you like to look after a child for a weekend, a few days, a few months or longer? Do you work, but still have some time and energy to care for a child?

Learn more...