In South Australia, there are nearly 5000 children awaiting foster care, and that number grows each day. Centacare is in urgent need of foster carers to provide safe, secure homes for these children. However, many who would make great foster carers don’t even apply, because they feel that their age, relationship status, background and even sexual orientation might exclude them.  

Becoming a foster carer is a big decision. But it’s easy to forget that whatever stress, apprehension and nervousness you might be feeling is nothing compared to how a foster child feels when going into a new home.

The emotional reasons for becoming a foster carer probably outweigh the logical reasons. We therefore wanted emotion to play a huge role in the campaign.

By showing the fostering process from both the child’s and the foster carer’s point of view, we would create a more powerful and emotional piece of storytelling.

Our aim was to demonstrate that although foster care begins with uncertainty for both the carer and the child, it all changes when you take that first step.

Two films were produced, one targeting general foster carers, and the other reunification foster carers.

For the first, we wanted to show just how similar the feelings of the carer and child can be in the lead up to foster care. The visual of the potential carers overlayed with the words of a child was a simple, beautiful way of achieving this.  

Reunification foster carers give children a safe and secure home until their birth families can do the same, so in this film we wanted to show the child’s seamless and stress-free transition from carer to biological parent. It was also important to communicate that even after a child goes back to a parent or parents, the carer can continue to play a role in the family’s life.