Community connections supporting young people in care - Sarah's Story

Feb 04, 2020

Sarah experienced a childhood with extreme levels of trauma and neglect. The condition of the home she was in was described by a child protection worker as the worst they had ever seen. Sarah and her siblings were removed at a very young age and were placed into the care of the state. Since then Sarah has been in over ten foster or residential care placements, and when she began engaging with Whitelion she was still in residential care, before going to yet another foster care placement.

Sarah’s background of trauma meant she had little connection to the community and preferred to spend her time indoors away from others. Sarah became involved with our Community Integration Program (CIP) in order to match her with a volunteer who would support her to begin an activity and feel a connection with her local community.

Sarah was matched with Yasmin, a long time and one of Whitelion’s best volunteer mentors. Yasmin went with Sarah every fortnight to her gymnastics classes. Gymnastics is something Sarah always wanted to try but with the support of Yasmin she was able to go and enjoy it on a consistent basis, and make new friends that were unaware of her care-story. The two would often go for a coffee or picnic after to catch up and Yasmin could provide Sarah with life-advice if she needed it.

Since working with Yasmin, clear changes have been visible in Sarah and she enjoys the consistency of their meetings, exemplifying the benefit of a trusted adult in a young person’s life. They have both expressed interest in continuing to stay connected and stay in contact following the programs completion.