Plenary Presenters
| Sunday, 12th July 5pm |
Dr. Geoffrey Shannon - Solicitor, Child Law Expert
| Monday, 13th July 9.15am to 10am |
Danielle Coady:
TITLE: MOVING ON AGAIN.....AN ANALYSIS OF FOSTER CARE BREAKDOWN FROM AN INSIDER’S PERSPECTIVE
Country: Republic of Ireland
Danielle Coady is a 25 year old woman who grew up in foster care. She has a BA in Applied Social Studies in Social Care and is currently in her second year of a Research Masters for which she won a scholarship from the Office of the Minister of Children in Ireland. Her topic is in the area of foster care and focuses specifically on the issue of resilience.
| Monday, 13th July 10am to 10.45am |
Dr. Helen Buckley:
TITLE: THE IMPACT OF CHILD PROTECTION REFORMS ON FOSTER CARE
Country: Republic of Ireland
Dr. Helen Buckley is an internationally recognised academic with specific interest in child protection responses, assessment of vulnerable children and professional collaboration. She has social work experience in child protection and has many publications on this topic to her credit.
| Monday, 13th July 2pm to 2.45pm |
Yvonne Andrews, Angie Cross and Nicole Herbert:
TITLE: SHARING OUR STORIES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: THE NATIONAL YOUTH IN CARE NETWORK'S DIGITAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOPS
Country: Canada
Yvonne Andrews, Director of Education, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and immigrated to Canada with her parents as a young child. At the age of 13, she was placed into care. She is a former Board Member of the International Foster Care Organisation. She has worked with street involved and homeless youth and is a relief foster parent for children and youth aged eight to eighteen years.
| Tuesday 14th July, 9.15am to 10am |
Dr. Valerie O’Brien
TITLE: UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEXITY OF KINSHIP CARE AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR RELATIONSHIPS ‘WITHIN THE FAMILY’ AND ‘FOR THE FAMILY AND STATE’.
Country: Republic of Ireland
Dr. O’Brien’s main areas of research and teaching interests are child welfare, counselling social work and psychotherapy and qualitative research methods. She is a social worker and a registered systemic psychotherapist and supervisor. She has researched and published in the area of kinship and relative care, adoption, service delivery models, care planning and family group conferencing. She has served on the Irish Adoption Board for ten years and through this service she continues to shape adoption policy and practice in Ireland.
| Tuesday July 14th 10 am to 10.45am |
Jillian Wain
TITLE: CONTACT JOURNEY OF A FOSTER CHILD
Country: Australia
Jillian Wain is a social worker and mother of eight children, four of whom are birth children. She has one long-term foster child, two adopted children and one child on a Permanent Care Order. Jillian has responsibility for the management and delivery of a quality foster care service and Kith and Kin Program which includes supervision and support of 10 staff and 24 active caregiver families. Jillian was nominated for the Australian of the Year Award in 2008. She won the National Foster Care Recognition Award in recognition for her outstanding contribution as a Foster Carer to the Australian Community in 2005.
| Tuesday 14th July 2pm to 2.45 pm |
Patricia Byrne
TITLE: THE USE OF MARTE MEO AS A SUPPORTIVE INTERVENTION TO ENCOURAGE ATTACHMENT IN FOSTER CARE
Country: Republic of Ireland
Patricia Byrne is a senior social work practitioner who has worked for many years in foster care in the Health Service Executive, Dublin. She has a broad range of experience of working with children with attachment issues and developmental delays. She is a trained Marte Meo Therapist and Supervisor. Patricia is the Assistant Co-ordinator at the Marte Meo Training Centre, HSE Dublin North East.
| Thursday 16th July 9.15 am to 10am |
Iain Matheson
TITLE: FOSTER CARE STANDARDS: A FOUR COUNTRY STUDY
Country: New Zealand
Iain Matheson is an independent management, research and evaluation consultant. He has over 20 years experience in social work services for children and is the former national manager for fostering and residential care with the New Zealand Department of Child, Youth and Family Services. Iain has postgraduate qualification in social work, child protection, social services management and social sector evaluation research, and is a doctoral candidate at the Otago University College of Education.
| Thursday July 16th 10 am to 10.45am |
Dr. Martine Delfos
TITLE: THE FOSTER FLIGHT. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT IN FOSTER CARE
Country: Netherlands
Dr. Martine Delfos is a bio-psychologist / clinical research psychologist. She is a researcher, therapist and writer on topics of interest to those working and living with children in care. She has worked for 35 years with foster children and their carers. Dr. Delfos lectures on the healthy Virtual development of children.
| Thursday July 16th 2pm to 2.45pm |
Fiona Daly and Robbie Gilligan
TITLE: MATURING OUT OF LONG TERM FOSTER CARE: A FOCUS ON YOUNG PEOPLE'S EDUCATION
Country: Republic of Ireland
Fiona Daly is a Researcher in the Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin. One of the major projects she worked on was a study of the education and social supports of young people aged 13-14 years in long term foster care, in conjunction with Professor Robbie Gilligan. This was the first study of its kind on a national scale to be undertaken in Ireland. A follow up study to this piece of work has recently been completed, the results of which form the basis of this presentation. Fiona has been a Board Member of the Irish Foster Care Association since January 2006.
Robbie Gilligan is Professor of the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. He is Head of the School and Associate Director of the Children's Research Centre at TCD. Robbie is currently the Vice President of the Childwatch International Research Network. He has worked as a social worker with children in care, has been a foster carer and has a strong research interest in the area of children in care. Many of his publications relate to foster care. These include Promoting Resilience – A resource Guide on Working with Children in the Care System published by the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering.
| Friday July 17th 9.15 am to 10am |
Plenary by: Gail Fagan
TITLE: WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT FOSTER FAMILIES, ANYWAY?
Country: Canada
Gail Fagan is a foster parent with over 15 years experience raising aboriginal children with disabilities. She is a trained teacher’s aid, former special needs school bus driver and a trained experienced facilitator. Gail offers her unique fun style, extensive experience and practice applications to current issues in foster care.
| Friday July 17th 10 am to 10.45am |
Pauline Dixon
TITLE: THE GOOD NEWS PROJECT- LINKING YOUTH IN FOSTERCARE
Country: Australia
Pauline Dixon has been a Social worker for the last 20 years working with vulnerable families and youth and children in foster care. She was recently a member of a government advisory committee in Western Australia that developed the Good News Project, a project aimed at raising the profile of youth in care and supporting their needs.