“Our purpose in Family Finding is to restore the opportunity to be unconditionally loved, to be accepted, and to be safe in a community and family. And that investing in families, not systems alone, is the best use of resources.” Kevin Campbell
In 2017, Allambi Care participated in a ‘Family Finding Boot Camp’, facilitated by an incredible professional and partner of ours, Mike Mertz (Seneca, California). Since that time, Allambi Care has invested in improving its practice by embedding this framework, with the formation of the Family Search and Engagement team.
The Family Search and Engagement team, in collaboration with other case managing departments within Allambi Care, work hard on continuing to improve the lifelong outcomes of children they provide care for through lifelong connections. Our work continues to this day with Mike and his team at Seneca, ensuring we continue to provide the most meaningful and genuine support for the children and families we work next to.
The Family Finding model acknowledges the critical importance of parents, relatives, and other caring people within a child or young person’s life; and that they are agents of change in children’s lives.
Here at Allambi Care, the Family Search and Engagement team, a small team of 6, specialise in the work of finding biological family members and others who are important to the child or young person. The second and very important next step in this process is connecting the child or young person to either newly found family, important pre-existing family members or other significant people to the child or young person. The Family search and Engagement team have completed family finding work on behalf of 48 children in their care so far, with some exceptional outcomes, particularly relating to improved wellbeing and reconstructing lifelong relationships, which support the child or young person well after their time in care.
