Have you ever thought about opening your home to a child in need? If so, then foster care may be an option for you to make a real difference in a child’s life. By fostering a child you open up your home and your heart to children who are unable to live with their current families or who have been abused or neglected. Each situation, each child has different needs, but you can really make a difference in a childs life by being their for them.

It doesn’t matter what your age or background is to be a foster parent, the important thing is that you want to help children get out of difficult situations and want to provide shelter, love, support and a stable home life for them. Another type of caregiver is a kinship foster parent meaning that care is given by a child’s family member, a close family friend, or community member.

You can provide short term care for a child in need for up to two years while Family Services tries to place them back in a stable environment with their family. Long term care is usually provided for child when they are young until they are age 18. You can expect that by being a part of the foster care system that you will receive the training needed, support and financial assistance needed to help you care for your foster child from the government.

The benefits of being a caregiver in the foster care system include helping young children become productive members of society, helping them remain and stay safe, being a role model for children, enhancing your own parenting skills, and giving a child a chance to thrive where they might not have been able to within their own family.

Some of the challenges of being a foster parent include having your own children adjust to sharing time with you and your foster child, dealing with behavior or medical issues that you may not have otherwise had any experience with, and continuing to support and care for your foster child even when you may not see the positive results immediately.

There are so many children in need of good, safe, and stable homes. If you think you could open up your heart and home to a child in desperate need of stability, care and love, then I would suggest you talk to your local foster care department and change not only a child’s life, but yours as well.

ECCQ stands for Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland. This organization is established in 1976. Talking about ECCQ is talking about multiculturalism because the main purpose of this organization is promoting multiculturalism. This is actually the spirit of this organization. It is like the representation of many people that are part of Queensland social community from different culture and linguistic background. This organization delivers their voice and interest.
The main purpose of this non-profit organization is to make sure that people in Queensland from different culture and linguistic background get the same access dealing with services. Besides, they also have equal rights to participate in making harmonious Queensland. To achieve these purposes, there are several programs applied in this organization including advocacy, community development programs, research on multicultural issues and etc.
This organization always tries to make all people have similar access to resources or services. One of the ways to achieve that goal is negotiation with government. This organization also initiates researches dealing with the condition of social and economy in Queensland. The contribution from this organization activity is an advice to government and other organizations. Based on its research, this organization will gain vital information about the needs of diverse communities. On the other hand, this organization also tries to encourage people in which come from diverse culture to take a part in several aspects such as education, economy or social. All in all, this is a glance about ECCQ.

For more info visit http://www.eccq.com.au/
Office Address: ECCQ House, 253 Boundary Street, West End, QLD 4101 (crn Granville St)

Housing providers in the community are registered under the Housing Act 2003. Department funded to provide community solutions to local housing needs through:

• Support for private housing – information and assistance for seniors and people with disabilities in the life of your own home or private hire.

• Crisis, transitional housing and long-term

• Information, advice and support to residential tenants and people in housing need

Under the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan, California will receive approximately 4,000 new social housing properties, with 2,700 delivered in 2010 and the remainder in June 2012.

Initiative Social Housing Plan will increase the involvement of the sector non-profit housing. Approximately, 1,500 homes will be delivered through capital grants to registered providers in delivering turnkey remaining agreements. Properties will be allocated to providers as they come running.

The Department of Communities (Housing Services and Homeless) works with housing providers in the community within a social housing system, to ensure that housing is provided assistance to families in the greatest need for the duration of that need.

The Queensland government’s plan for government-run community and local housing and housing-related services in 2011 is captured in the State of the Community Housing Authority. The statement describes the contribution of government-run local community and housing and housing services within the social housing system, why a restoration is required, and the best priority of the department to achieve the vision.

To support providers in delivering a system of strong and viable social housing, a number of mechanisms have been established through the Strategy for Strengthening Social Housing.

A range of online resources are also available to help providers operating within a social housing system. These include policies, procedures, forms and information sheets on how to provide services funded under a social housing system.

For more information, contact the department. http://www.communities.qld.gov.au

http://profile.id.com.au/Default.aspx?id=310

Open until 17 July 2011, Yiloga! Tiwi Footy is a new exhibition at the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) exploring the influence and importance of Australian Football in the lives of  this small indigenous community in the Timor Sea. Yiloga! (meaning ‘footy’ in the local Tiwi language) showcases photographs, guernseys (traditional football jerseys) and memorabilia, highlighting the Tiwi community’s passion for the game as well as its positive impact on community life.