Foster Care: Vivienne & Shane Seers’ Rich Life Story
Vivienne and Shane Seers have been Gilkison clients for many years now and truly lead a Rich Life. When we meet to discuss their finances, we always love hearing about the heart-warming work they are doing in the community by providing foster care.
For a significant part of their working lives, Vivienne and Shane were active community members who provided community care. Shane was a WA Justice of the Peace for over twenty years, State and Federal Office Bearer of the RSL WA Branch and involved with RSL Sub Branches and Ex-Service organizations. Vivienne had also been involved in Family Day Care and supported families with emergency care at various times. Their children (and therefore Vivienne and Shane) were involved in various groups including Cubs, Scouts, Guides, Junior Football AFL and Netball… just to name a few! Vivienne and Shane believed that they had a great deal to offer the broader community and have acted on this for many years now – that’s what has defined their Rich Life.
When their children relocated over east, Vivienne and Shane quickly missed the pitter patter of their grandchildren. They knew they had plenty of love to give so first applied to be foster carers whilst living in the remote community of Newman. It was not until they relocated to Karratha three years later that they commenced caring due to the required safety checks and training they had to complete. Doing so in addition to their employment, combined with the high workloads of Family Services made it a long process – but a worthy one.
That is now some twelve years ago and in that time Vivienne and Shane have provided Foster Care WA with over 130 placements. Covering both short term emergency care and respite, they provide care for children only days old to children in their teenage years, with their longest placement three years long. Whilst every placement had it’s challenges, they were also so rewarding – they are honoured to help the family to get through a difficult stage and choose to love the children for however long they stay with them.
If there is one thing that Vivienne and Shane really focus on with children they have provided foster care to it is respect – their respect for the children as individuals and their culture, the children’s respect to Vivienne and Shane and their home, their respective community and families. Vivienne and Shane believe that community starts with respect. If we can teach all people to have respect then loyalty, honesty, care and education will all come that much easier and foster the positive growth communities.
Vivienne and Shane have found this type of community support to be very rewarding, mainly because the children are so pleasing to work with, provide support to, care for and love. Every child they have cared for has made their lives that bit much better. It’s clear that community is a large part of Vivienne and Shane’s definition of a Rich Life. What is a Rich Life to you?