We have recently launched our Cuddle Cases and Teen Bags Program for Children and Teens entering foster care. Children entering foster care are usually given a shopping bag or a plastic bag to move their few belongings. We provide a Cuddle Case, filled with new essential items like a teddy bear, quilt, pillow, hygiene kit, drink bottle and lunch box for school, crayons and much more. For Tweens and Teens we provide Duffle Bags filled with personal items such as paw paw ointment, earbuds, deodorant, personal care items, shampoo and conditioner and other essential items of their own. Our cases and bags provide each child with something positive, comforting and reassuring in what is an extremely traumatic time. A teddy bear to cuddle can mean the world to a child who is alone and scared and help them feel that none of what is happening is their fault.
Kerri Chard is a leading authority in Child Protection with a background in psychology and over two decades of professional experience in the Non-Government and Government Sectors. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience in working with families impacted by intergenerational trauma, abuse and neglect. Kerri has spent significant time working in the court system with these families and has also run a regional intake service to determine intervention responses to children to meet their safety needs. She has developed award winning interventions within the Education sector, and spent time assisting schools to better understand complex developmental trauma and support children in the education system as well as bringing trauma informed curriculums into the classroom.
Kerri is Queensland’s leading Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) practitioner, having studied directly with Dr David Cross and the Karen Purvis Institute of Child Development team. Kerri trains residential care workers, foster and kinship support staff and also works directly with foster and kinship carers as well as biological parents using TBRI®. Kerri has spent time working in the USA with leaders and innovators helping children heal from their trauma. She is well known for her passionate yet pragmatic approach to the complex issue of Child Protection.
She is highly regarded as someone who can think differently and translate psychological theory into practical interventions that transform lives. Kerri is also a foster carer who successfully uses TBRI with children in the care system in her own home – and also on her own 3 sons (and husband!)