How can we help?

Your care can be life-changing

Right now, there are young people in Adelaide who desperately need someone on their team. Become a carer in our specialised foster care program and help a young person in need to finally return home.

Residential care is the last place a young person should live

Young people do best in family, or family-like, environments. But sometimes it’s not safe for a young person to stay with their birth parents. And some young people have complex needs that make it difficult to stay with general foster carers.

These are the young people who end up in residential care in Adelaide.

Young people in residential care are likely to have trauma from past neglect or abuse. That trauma compounds when they’re placed in a group with other traumatised children who have complex behaviours.

As a group, these young people are supervised by youth workers on a rotating roster. It’s lonely and they are at risk.

Treatment Foster Care Oregon program

Given the right support, every young person can thrive

Treatment Foster Care Oregon (TFCO) is a specialised foster care program running in Adelaide designed to help young people who are either in, or at risk of entering, the residential care system.

The goal? To support a young person for approximately 9 months to either reunite them with their family or be placed in a safe, nurturing long-term care environment, you will be given a carer allowance of up to $65,000 per annum, tax-free.

TFCO has proven to be highly effective, due to its holistic approach:

Support the young person

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  • The TFCO program focuses on consistent positive reinforcement and praise.

  • They have a daily structure with clear expectations and fair consequences.

  • They receive intensive support by a team of 7 local professionals with years of sector experience.

  • They’re encouraged to attend school and develop positive relationships with peers and adults.

  • They’re encouraged to attend school and develop positive relationships with peers and adults.

Support the Carer

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  • As a TFCO carer, you’re given comprehensive initial training as well as ongoing training, coaching and development that is tailored to your family.

  • You get daily morning calls with the TFCO team to monitor the child’s progress and your wellbeing.

  • There are weekly TFCO carer meetings in the Keswick office with fellow carers and the program supervisor.

  • 24/7 on-call support is always accessible.

  • You can access monthly respite care.

Support the Family

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  • Families or long-term carers in the TFCO program are provided with therapy and parent training.

  • Families learn to provide consistent discipline, supervise and provide encouragement and use a modified version of the behaviour management system.

  • This equips them with the tools to build positive relationships, properly support and care for the child when they return home.

  • Families get additional support after their child returns home to help them settle in and develop a healthy family dynamic.

Could you be part of a team that transforms a young life? Get in touch and we’ll email you more information about the program.

9 months can be all it takes to turn a life around

The TFCO Program has been proven to…

  • Prevent or reduce the number of days in residential settings

  • Improve general mental and physical health and wellbeing

  • Increase positive academic engagement

  • Improve brain stress regulatory systems

  • Increase positive attachment

Learn more

Everything you need to do incredibly rewarding work

Being a TFCO carer is a rewarding but time consuming role. Which is why you’ll be provided with a generous tax-free allowance while your are caring for a young person in the program.

Ideally carers don’t work at all, however if your work is highly flexible and only minimal hours we could explore this with you. This is only relevant for Fulltime carers. Respite carers are OK to work part-time or full-time.

As a TFCO carer you’ll also be assisted by a highly specialised team. You’ll be an important part of the support team including a family therapist, an individual therapist, a teacher, program supervisor and a skills coach.

Daily calls and weekly team meetings in the Keswick office mean you’ll always have an up-to-the-minute, individualised treatment plan for the young person in your care.

$65,000

Tax-free allowance, per annum ($5,416 per month)

24/7 support

from a team of highly qualified specialists

Single, Renting, Identify as LGBTQIA+

Are you eligible to become a TFCO carer?

If you have love to give, you can give a child a better future. TFCO carers come from a diverse range of cultures, religions, sexual orientations, families and marital status.

What’s most important is your capacity to help a child thrive.

You can become a TFCO carer if you:

  • Are over 21

  • Can provide a clean and safe living space

  • Have a spare bedroom

  • Have the time to commit to caring for a young person

  • Are open to being trained to care for a young person with complex behaviours. Previous experience in a similar role is a bonus!

  • Live in our Adelaide service area:

Sound like it could work for you? Get in touch via our enquiry form and we’ll send you some info to read and videos to watch.


OzChild TFCO Process

What are the steps in becoming a TFCO carer

The accreditation process is an important part of safeguarding the wellbeing and happiness of vulnerable young person. For that reason, the process is thorough.

But you won’t have to navigate it all on your own. We will guide you through every step of the journey.

Learn more

We would love to have you at one of our virtual Q&A sessions. During this virtual session you will hear stories from an OzChild foster carer. The carer will share the rewarding experiences and some of the challenges you might come across. You can of course ask any questions you might have about the kids, the program or the process. These Q&A sessions are held online with up to 5 other households and you can join from the comfort of your own home. To see a list of upcoming sessions, please click here.

We will meet you at your home to get to know each other and tell you more about the program, the young people and the process to become an accredited carer. You will be able to ask any questions you might have.

All specialised foster carers complete 16 hours of compulsory foster care training at no cost to you. The training will prepare you for the day-to-day responsibilities and challenges and provide you with parenting techniques. The training is mandatory for everyone in the house with a caring role.

The assessments are designed to work out with you if fostering is a suitable option for you at this time. Part of the assessments are paperwork, which includes an application form, Working with children application, a police check and a health and well-being questionnaire. During this stage you will also be invited to attend the 2 full days of specialised TFCO training.

Once you have completed all the paperwork and assessment, your application will be presented to a carer panel responsible for the accreditation and approval of new carers based on meeting the required competencies. Once you are officially an OzChild carer, we will start looking for a possible match for you!

Could you be part of a team that transforms a young life?

Listen to experiences as a TFCO carer

What has it been like working with the TFCO team?

What’s it like when a child graduates from the TFCO program?

Frequently Asked Questions

Big decisions need great information

Yes. All TFCO carers receive a tax-free allowance of $65,000 per annum ($5,416 in your pocket per month) to help with the costs associated with supporting a young person in your care.

If you wish to become a full-time carer, preferably, the primary carer should be home full-time. You can work in your current job up until the day the young person is coming into your care. If you work casually or study part-time and have plenty of flexibility, we can explore how you could manage your existing time commitments while ensuring you can meet the needs of the child or young person in your care. If you are interested in becoming a respite carer, one or two weekends a month, you would have the time to work or study part-time or full-time as long as you’re free when the child or young person is staying with you.

Yes, absolutely. As long as you have strong, established support systems in place to assist you both emotionally and practically.

Yes. It is essential for the young people in the TFCO program to have their own private and safe space, where they can settle in, feel it is their own and enable them to thrive, especially where there is a background of trauma. Sharing rooms is prohibited within the program and ensures all children in the carer’s household have their own room to retreat to.

The placement generally lasts somewhere between six to 12 months, as this is where the research shows the TFCO therapeutic response to be the most effective for children, as well as sustainable for the carer households.

  • Weekly TFCO carer meetings in the Keswick office with the other TFCO carer households and the program supervisor to exchange experiences and offer peer support.
  • Daily morning calls from the TFCO team to record the young person’s behaviours as well as your wellbeing and identify what additional support you might need that day.
  • On-call phone support available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • Respite care for all young people in the program by TFCO-trained respite carers once a month.
  • Full general foster care and TFCO program training provided.
  • Ongoing training, coaching and development tailored to your needs.

Yes. Whilst it may be one member of the household driving the application, it is a requirement that both partners complete training and assessment. Children in the home are also included in parts of the assessment. It is also encouraged that other household members especially those over the age of 18 attend training.

The age range of the young people in the TFCO program in South Australia are 10-17 years. You can provide a gender preference and/or age preference within the age range.

TFCO placements are not long-term or permanent care options. The aim of TFCO is to reunify children and young people with family or kin. In Victoria and Queensland we are looking for long-term after carers who are keen to care for kids who have graduated from the program but don’t have family to go to afterwards.

Where applicants are on an IVF program, pregnant or already exploring permanent care options or adoptions, it is suggested they see those plans through before exploring a TFCO application.

Generally, this is okay, especially if the children are older. TFCO offers the children and young people of carer households a wonderful opportunity to learn valuable life skills. However, we do not support TFCO households with children under three years old in their care, as small children require extra attention and supervision which would be difficult to manage with the therapeutic care of a TFCO young person.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, give our recruitment team a call on 1800 954 550 or email tfco-sa@ozchild.org.au, we’d love to help!

Due to the high needs the kids in the specialised foster care program have, the program does not allow for you to care for other foster kids as this can sometimes be disruptive to the stability of your current placement. The exception of this program rule, is when you have become the permanent carer of the foster child that is already in your care.
Lara

Have more questions?

Give us a call on 1800 954 550 or email tfco-sa@ozchild.org.au
We’d love to help!

Ready to take the next step?

Get your Specialised Foster Care Information Pack

You can find the essential information you need to become a specialised foster carer with OzChild in this pack. Our info pack will guide you through the process, answering questions you may still have so that you can provide a safe and loving home for a vulnerable young person in need. Your decision to become a specialised foster carer can change a young person’s life, giving them the care and support they deserve.

By submitting the enquiry form, you’re not signing up for anything; we are simply providing you with more information, some videos to watch and the next steps.

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