Little Stars Kids Cuddle Cases Program provides brand new Cases and Duffle bags to children entering foster care in Queensland. Children entering care are extremely distressed and leaving everything they know behind, their bed, their clothes, their friends, their toys and their school friends. Our Cuddle Cases provide children with comfort and essential items at an extremely traumatic time. During 2020 we have provided over 300 Cuddle Cases to the Department of Child Safety and Foster Agencies and residential care facilities around Brisbane. Pictured: Deryan From Infinity Community Solutions with Ana Jeanmonod, Little Stars Kids.
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!)