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Vital Volunteers

What do volunteers do

Volunteers are everyday people who give a little bit of their time to a cause that resonates with their personal values and they are worth their weight in gold!

Our Volunteers add so much to the lives of the young people here at Burdekin.

It doesn’t suit everybody to become a foster carer and volunteering might be a great alternative. Volunteers provide weekly connections to the lives of young people, many of whom have not experienced relationships with trusted adults in their lives.

Some of our valiant volunteers:

  • Volunteer Audrey visits one of our houses weekly and assists the carer by cooking the evening meal for the 3 young teens who live there. The kids often join in and the carer appreciates the adult company. We call Audrey a “house angel”.
  • Volunteers Tom and Issy are assisting two of our young people to get their drivers licence by helping them gain the 120 supervised Learner hours.
  • Volunteer Anna is helping a 17 year old who is studying to become a hairdresser.
  • Hugh is helping a young man to improve his English.
  • Sarah is providing valuable help in the office, doing an important task that takes time.
  • Georgie plays sport after school with one young girl.
  • Monique takes a young person out each Sunday and they discuss art and music.

We recognise the huge value a volunteer who is choosing to give up their time to be with a young person contributes. One young person said recently: “You mean she’s not paid to be with me? That’s cool.”

Whilst many individuals volunteer to give something back to their community, most volunteers find that they experience a number of benefits too. Volunteering has been proven to have benefits to both physical and mental health – it’s a win win!

I’m ready to volunteer – what’s next?

Read more about what it is like to become a volunteer with Burdekin and fill out an expression of interest. You might also like to read about our volunteer team and what sort of help we are looking for. We will also be running our next volunteer recruitment drive including training dates in May this year – watch this space.

We have also teamed up with Mentoring Men who provide free long-term one-to-one life mentoring programs for men Australia wide. Our partnership aims to engage male volunteers into our Volunteer Program for our young people.

Mardi Gras Fair

Meet our Burdekin Foster Carers

We will have a stall at the Mardi Gras Fair this year and we are looking forward to connecting with as many of you as possible! This is a wonderful opportunity to be part of a large community event. Our Carer team will be present to explain what it’s like to be a Burdekin Foster Carer.

Whether you are single, married, a home owner, renting, need us to provide a home, have a full time job, are part of the LGBTQ+ community, have a disability, are from an ethnic minority group – Carers come in all shapes and forms. We want to talk to you about what it means to be a Burdekin Foster Carer. Please take time to come by and say hi to us and learn more about our work.

The Mardi Gras Fair will be held at Victoria Park on Sunday 20th February in Broadway. There promises to be food, markets, comedy, dance and live music for all ages. We hope to see you there!

For more details about the Mardi Gras Fair please visit: ww.mardigras.org.au/events/fair-day

For details about our upcoming Burdekin Foster Carer information session please visit: Carer Information Session

And for more information about being a Carer with us or to speak to our team please contact:

Phone: 02 8976 1777
Email: carer@burdekin.org.au

Sarah Inner West | Michelle Northern Beaches

Local Matters Jar at Grill’d Balgowlah

Local Matters at Grill'd

For the month of February there will be our own local matters jar at Grill’d Balgowlah. If you happen to love a good burger head to Grill’d Balgowlah or order online and vote for Burdekin. If you love our work and want to help, this is an easy way for you to support us and it won’t cost you anything extra!

We have a chance to win the top donation prize of $300 or second or third place of $100 each. Grab some mates and head down for a burger and support your local charity! All you have to do is add a community token to our jar.

Local Matters Jar at Grill'd Balgowlah
Local Matters at Grill’d Balgowlah

Community Matters

Community Giving

We are always saying how much our community matters to us – because we mean it, we can honestly do so much more because of you.

Faros Seafood Marrickville

When only fresh will do… Faros Seafood on Buckley Street in Marrickville have an amazing reputation locally and beyond for their delicious seafood and friendly customer service. We would like to thank Peter and the team there for their very generous donation of a $50 gift voucher for each of our young people in the Inner West. Such generosity at a difficult time of the year – we are so very appreciative!

Faros Seafood - Marrickville Giving Back to young people

Rotary Club Dee Why

The lovely folk at The Rotary Club of Dee Why visited Friday, 17th December and left some beautifully wrapped gifts that have been carefully placed under our Christmas tree. These presents  are donations from the community, which will be allocated to our young people. Thank you so much to the lovely group of Rotary representatives and community members who generously donated the items. They will sure put smiles on our young people’s faces at Christmas.

Addi Road Community Organisation

Our Inner West office is located at the Addi Road Community Centre, which is operated by The Addi Road Community Organisation – also a not for profit. One of Addi Road’s initiatives is The Food Pantry – a food relief hub that sells low cost groceries to those in need or food vouchers to those who cannot afford to pay. In the lead up to Christmas their team of volunteers have been creating Hampers for Hope – with a mission to pack over 1000 gift hampers for those who are vulnerable and or in need this Christmas.

They have very kindly donated 50 hampers to Burdekin for the children and young people in our care. Amazing community spirit from our neighbours and we thank them so much! Our children and young people will love them!

From left to right, Virginia Texeira, Jacqui Gildaly (both Burdekin Inner West Managers), Graham Bargwanna, one of the BA senior managers and some of the team from the Addi Road Community Organisation.

Officeworks Brookvale

Recently our CEO was presented with a laptop, ipad, phone, and art supplies for the young people in our care by Officeworks in Brookvale – this will benefit our young people so much.

A big thank you to Gabby Collins and team. Here she is with our CEO Justene Gordon.

Bing Lee Balgowlah

Bing Lee Balgowlah also very kindly donated a number of vacuum cleaners that will be used across our houses to support our young people in Out of Home Care.

A big thank you to Lionel Lee and his team for their wonderful donation. Here he is with our CEO Justene Gordon.

In the lead up to Christmas we also have many other contributions from individuals, businesses and local organisations – acts of kindness – that help make the lives of the children and young people in our care that much better.

Thank you!

Meet our Burdekin Foster Carer Team

How to foster in NSW

Monthly information sessions and local pop up events

Each month, our team hold information sessions about being a Burdekin Foster Carer. At the session we will take interested potential carers through all the information and answer questions. Please register your interest or share this post with somebody who might be keen. Here are our monthly dates.

In addition to monthly sessions we are popping up at local events – you might have seen us recently at the Marrickville Justice Fair and the Marrickville Organic Markets – thanks to those of you who dropped by and said hi. We will keep you posted about future events as it is a great opportunity to find out some information, pick up a flyer and chat to a real person about what is involved in being a Burdekin Foster Carer.

Have you ever considered becoming a foster carer?

You may have considered fostering a child in the past and have been hesitant for many reasons. Common reasons that hold people back might be:

  • Concerns about disruptions to your life/ your children’s life
  • Concerns about it being too challenging
  • Concerns about not having the right skills or personality
  • You might be worried about the behavioural challenges of a child who has suffered trauma
  • You might be concerned about relations with the biological family
  • You might be worried about becoming too attached/not attached
  • You might worried that you won’t be able to stick it out or will want to quit

Our team knows this – they know how you feel, they have been there too.

Considerations

  • Talking about becoming a foster carer doesn’t mean that you have to go through with it
  • Attending information sessions doesn’t mean that you have to go through with it
  • You can start off slow – with emergency or respite care
  • Becoming a Burdekin Foster Carer is different to other types of foster care because you have a whole team of support behind you to work with you and the child or young person

Our team are ready to support you through your initial inquiries with no expectations.

Contact us

For more information about becoming a Carer please contact our Carer Support Coordinators:

Phone: 02 8976 1777
Email: carer@burdekin.org.au

Sarah Inner West | Kerrie Northern Beaches

You might like to check out our information pages: Become a Burdekin Foster Carer and Burdekin Foster Carer FAQs.

We acknowledge the Aboriginal people of the Cadigal and Gayamaygal Clans. We acknowledge the Country on which we live, work, and gather as being Aboriginal land.

We acknowledge the lands, waterways and skies that are connected to Aboriginal people. We honour them and pay our deepest respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

We respect their rightful place within our communities, and we value their ancient cultural knowledge and practices.

Aboriginal Flag
Torres Straight Island Flag

We deeply respect that this will always be Aboriginal land and we will honour and follow the first peoples’ values in caring for the Country and for preserving their culture.

We deeply value that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the oldest living culture in the world and we will continue to work with their peoples and communities to ensure their cultures endure and remain strong.