Recent experiences of a Wesley Foster 'Parent'

Posted by Peter on 13 September 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: Foster Care, parenting, fostering, foster children

For B, a young teenager for whom Jono provides foster care, the positive changes have been equally important. Once a habitual truant from school, with a record as a ‘runner’ for his habit of running away from previous foster care placements, B is now regularly attending school, achieving good grades and has no thoughts of ‘doing a runner.’

The changes noted in B and Jono’s passion for his role, are no accidents. Both have benefitted from the many years experience of WCA’s seasoned Foster Care support team and its Strength Based ethos.

Jono’s introduction into Wesley’s foster care team was gradual. After an 18 year career in the printing industry, Jono had been made redundant and used the opportunity to reassess his career and look for some more meaningful work.  Jono recalls, “being made redundant was a big wake-up call for me, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do.... my long friendship with another Social Worker, had introduced me to Social Work... and when I saw an advertisement for Wesley Community Action seeking Foster Parents,  it was like a beacon to me.” 

One of the hardest parts in his transition to Foster Care was Jono’s second interview with Wesley Community Action. “I found it quite intimidating being interviewed by two people,” recalls Jono. Fortunately, Jono coped well enough with the unfamiliar interview process, and his abilities impressed the Wesley team. Soon after the interview Jono was offered a part-time role as a ‘respite caregiver,’ filling in and helping out when other Wesley foster parents needed a break. “It was a good introduction,” recalls Jono, “I was able to feel my way gradually into the work.”

During the 2010/11 Christmas holiday period, Jono was asked to take a step further and manage a ‘holiday programme.’  “It was great, I took the boys on lots of walks, we did wood carving, pumice carving, swimming, craftwork, rock climbing, and played lots of basketball,” recalls Jono. During both the holiday programme and the respite care process, Jono was introduced to ‘B’ and found he got on well with him, and by the time the Wesley team approached Jono to take B on as a full time Foster Parent , the two had already established a good relationship that ‘worked’ for them both. “It was a smooth transition, it was great,” recalls Jono.

Jono noticed that B was very interested in his Maori heritage and introduced him to  the kapa haka roopu of Nga Karere. B also learned skills relating to mau rakau - taiiaha (spear).   They both now regularly attend lessons in these skills and at one stage the pair completed a 5 day taiaha course under the Tikanga of Te Arawa (Rotorua), living under canvas on Rotorua’s Mokoia Island where B thrived in the dawn to dusk regime and learned a lot about his heritage.

 
B’s  transition took a further boost when he came second in the special needs category of the Wellington Regional schools competition. This placing won him selection to join the North Island championships held in Hamilton where he achieved a creditable 3rd placing.  Both Jono and B were overwhelmed by the success, and it was an even more memorable achievement when one considers that as late as an hour before the event B had to train with a stick as he lacked a proper javelin to practice with. It was only after another athlete helped out by loaning him a proper javelin to practice that B was able to snatch 10 minutes of vital practice.

In more recent times, B is learning Kapa Haka skills and is often seen practising the routines outside in the evenings. Notes Jono, “It’s great to see him  so motivated, I don’t have to push him, he just gets out there and practices.”

Jono adds, “B is very competitive, whether we are indoors playing cards, or outside playing basketball, touch rugby etc.” Perhaps it is the competitive traits in both B and Jono that the Wesley staff noted when they suggested they work together, as Jono is also very competitive and takes a healthy interest in Martial Arts, triathalons,  cycling, running and swimming.

Jono has an affinitiy for a young person struggling to come to terms with the cards that life has dealt him as Jono has encountered similar difficulties in his own upbringing where bullying in turn effected his schooling. “I found school very tough,” he recalls, “I didn’t cope.” When the Maori Affairs Department offered Jono the opportunity to leave his small community of Ohakune and travel to Wellington for employment, he leapt at the opportunity.  Over the succeeding years, employment opportunities came and went, a marriage came and went, and a lovely daughter came and went and now lives in Melbourne. Jono says with pride “I’m very close to my daughter and relish any opportunity to spend time with my  mokopuna (grandchild.)

Jono has experienced much in his life and his ability to learn from it and to grow are talents that he can now pass on to the young people he works with. Jono’s Team Leader at Wesley Community Action, Sarah Packman says, “what I see as a major strength in Jono, is his refusal to be swayed by the negative labels that sometimes come with the young people we work with. Instead he has a strong belief in the young person’s abilities and that in turn helps to nurture these strengths.”