25 reasons to make 2025 the year you foster

Fostering isn’t just about providing a roof over a child’s head - it’s about creating opportunities, building trust, and making a lasting impact.

To inspire more people to take the leap, National Fostering Group share their 25 reasons to consider fostering in 2025:

1. Offer a child a safe and secure home.
2. Help children feel valued, loved, and safe.
3. Bring light to a child’s life that may have been darkened before.
4. Help children grow into confident, capable adults.
5. Support children in overcoming trauma and rebuilding trust.
6. Remove children from potentially harmful or unsafe situations.
7. Ensure children have access to learning opportunities.
8. Introduce children to new experiences like travel, hobbies, or sports.
9. Instill values that children can carry into adulthood.
10. Provide a happy home where children can thrive.
11. Restore hope and encourage children to dream big.
12. Ensure access to essential resources like medical care.
13. Help break cycles of poverty, abuse, and neglect.
14. Lower the risk of homelessness among vulnerable youth.
15. Positively impact a child’s life in meaningful ways.
16. Gain new perspectives and deepen compassion.
17. Develop resilience, adaptability, and patience.
18. Build lifelong bonds with the children you care for.
19. Teach values like kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.
20. Experience immense personal rewards through fostering.
21. Receive valuable training and support as a foster carer.
22. Connect with a network of social workers, therapists, and other foster families.
23. Leave a lasting impact on society and children’s lives.
24. Fill an empty nest with joy and purpose.
25. Discover a renewed sense of fulfillment and purpose.

Quotes from foster parents reveal the impact that being a foster carer can have on the life of a child:

“Realising that a child who was scared has grown to trust you is one of the best parts of fostering,” says Jo.

“23 years on, I look back and think, my goodness, we've looked after 28 children of all ages,” reflects Julie.

“It’s ordinary people that are needed, who can do extraordinary things in the simplest ways,” add Sue and Kelvin.

Lynn Webb, Regional Director at National Fostering Group has said: “As we enter 2025 many of us will be considering our New Year’s resolutions and starting to think about what it is we want to achieve this year."

"Choosing to foster a child is one of the most rewarding and enriching decisions you could make. Our foster carers are some of the most dedicated, loving, and hard working individuals around and there has never been a better time to join them. Fostering really does change lives so why not make this the year that you foster.”