That’s a wrap! The National Kinship, Permanent and Foster Care Conference 2024 ran from the 9th - 11th August at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on Narrm, the beautiful lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. 

Foster Care Association of Victoria was proud to partner with Permanent Care and Adoptive Families and Kinship Carers Victoria to present this conference with the support of the Victorian Government, and many valued sponsors.

The Conference aimed to provide opportunities to explore existing and emerging thinking on a range of issues that regularly reoccur among carers, including supporting children and young people with a disability, navigating the NDIS, school engagement, grief and loss, carer mental health and wellbeing, training and support for carers, supporting cultural safety, navigating the legal system and carer rights - and many more! And importantly, the conference provided a space for carers to connect, share their experiences, and discuss systemic issues.

We certainly experienced this at our FCAV booth where there was such a great energy! We were honoured to spend time speaking with so many carers and sector colleagues, both local and interstate. Thank you to everyone who came by!

As we celebrate this conference experience and the wonderful people who came together to make it possible, we also reflect on aspects of the conference that provide opportunities for improvement. We welcome feedback from all delegates and value those reflections and suggestions as opportunities to make future events even more meaningful.

Thank you to our partners, sponsors and all sector delegates. And of course thank you to all of the incredible carers! 

We know that many carers were not able to attend the conference so we’ve put together an outline of the many presentations, our reflections on some sessions and resources. We hope that you find this helpful and please do reach out if you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts. 

We look forward to continuing conversations, learnings and opportunities following the conference … And we look forward to seeing carers at the next National Conference.