Spring Newsletter – Social Work Update
North Team Update
Spring greetings from the North team!
It’s wonderful to see the mornings and evenings getting that little bit brighter. I hope everyone has recovered from the challenging and unpredictable storms and icy weather. I know many of you were without electricity for a considerable time following Storm Éowyn. In November, thankfully Storm Dara didn’t interfere too much, and we still got to celebrate at the Carer Awards Party together. Congratulations to all our carers who received their 5-, 10- and 15-year awards. Well done everyone and thank you for all the extraordinary things you do on a daily basis.
The theme of change is present and as a team we have experienced some changes again recently. As you know, last year we were amalgamated into two teams while Claire Lohan was on maternity leave. It’s wonderful to see FFI grow, and we were delighted to welcome Deirdre Walsh as Link Social Worker on the North Team and in January we also welcomed Helen Ward as Link Social Worker covering Roscommon and Leitrim areas. Both Deirdre and Helen come to FFI with extensive experience and expertise. We are very lucky to have you both here in FFI. Upon Claire Lohan’s return we have reverted back to three teams. With Claire moving to the South Team as Social Work Team Manager, and Deirdre Walsh, Eimear White, and Hayley Wells, LSWs, also moving to the South Team, we have seen some changes. We miss you all but know you are not far away. Since our last newsletter, Lorna Price and Lisa Clarke have both been successfully appointed as Senior Social Work Practitioners, congratulations to you both.
As a team, we enjoyed a team building day in January in Co. Galway and it was lovely to spend time connecting with one another. We look forward to meeting up throughout 2025 at carer groups, FFI 20th Anniversary Celebration events, trainings and making memories together. It’s a busy time for our Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate students as they prepare for their mocks and upcoming exams. We wish you all the very best of luck over the coming weeks.
I will finish by extending a very warm welcome to Gemma and Joe Mullen, our newly approved foster carers in Roscommon, and Oliver Mc Crohan and Brian Higgins in Dublin, we wish you the very best as you commence your fostering journeys with FFI.
Take care,
Joanna
Mid Team Update
The Mid-Team (Mary, Anthony, Marguerite, Clare and Elaine H) are navigating a brave new world without our wonderful Margaret Conroy, LSW who retired in December 2024 after 17 years of service with FFI and a longstanding involvement with many of the foster carers she was allocated to. We miss Margaret, not least for her wisdom, kindness and empathy but for all we learned from her in her naturally PACE-ful attitude to life. We wish her all the best in her retirement and will continue to keep in touch. As we re-organised back into our Mid-Team in September, we lost Valerie from our mini-team and as most people know, many of Margaret’s families now work with Eimear and Deirdre with a small number continuing to work with Mary.
We have been reflecting on some of the wonderful achievements of our amazing FFI children and young people and their foster families. In September, Michelle and Jamie welcomed a new baby to their family and Martina and John had their first foster placement of a 7-year-old boy which is going so well. We also had news of young people doing really well with their Junior and leaving Cert results. In November, we had Carer Awards Party and many of our carers received 5-, 10- and 15-year awards. We also welcomed new carers Ciara and Jonathan Burke and their birth children L and Z to the world of fostering and they subsequently welcomed a baby to their home in early December! In January 2025 we received the lovely news of a Long-Term Fostering to Adoption celebration in Laois (both Mary and Margaret had supported this foster family for a long time). We also have a number of children and young people navigating their first year in pre-school, Schools and 3rd Level Colleges. We now have a young person on the under 16 County Wexford Team. They are all super-stars!
We would like to make a special shout out to all of our respite carers on the mid team- Terri, Mary, Gillian and Oliver, Tina and Ted, Deirdre, Gert and their families. These families have been working hard maintaining, sustaining and bridging placements and will continue to do so, often at short notice throughout the year.
Finally, we know that other important milestones of one year in placement and one year since approval in September 2024 were and will shortly (by March) be reached for an amazing 7 families on our current teams’ allocation. We love being part of our foster families’ achievements, celebrations and special moments. Keep going and making such a real difference everyone and let us keep celebrating you and yours with you!
South Team Update
I hope you are all settling well into 2025 and that it brings only good things to you and your family. Hopefully storm Eowyn didn’t cause you too much damage and disruption, I am looking forward to brighter weather and longer days.
It’s great to be back at work with everyone and although I was sad to leave the North Team after nearly 12 years I was delighted to join the South Team for the first time. We had a little re jig of staff and our South Team now consists of link social workers Hayley Wells, Deirdre Walsh, Eimear White and Valerie Horgan. It has been a pleasure to reconnect with some carers I haven’t met with in years and to meet many new ones in the South. I enjoyed recently attending the Cork and Limerick carer groups and I plan to visit the remaining ones later this year hopefully.
It was also lovely to see everyone with their glam on at the carers party last November – well done to all of those who received awards. We will have other opportunities to meet again this year as FFI turns 20! The conference will be a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our journey to date, our learning and all we have achieved together. I’m looking forward to attending some of the celebratory events around the country and it’s great to see so many plans being made.
I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our newest carer, Sharon who joined the FFI family just before Christmas, delighted to have you, Sharon!
