Justine Iotua

Justine Iotua – Barnardos social worker – Royal Oak

What does your job involve?
My job’s to ensure that foster children are happy and are being looked after well by their foster carers. Every few weeks, I visit the children to make sure that they’re receiving the right education, support and are emotionally secure. I ensure that the caregivers are receiving adequate support whilst also training and recruiting prospective foster carers.

How long have you been working at Barnardos?
I’ve been here for eight years. I spent my first year in family support. From there, I worked on our Footsteps to Feeling Safe programme. For this, I did group work with the children where I’d host 10-12 sessions which covered relevant topics to help those children with past difficulties. I’m now working in fostering and have been for the last two years.

How and why did you end up working for Barnardos?
I studied in New Plymouth and completed a diploma in social work. When I moved to Auckland, I got offered a placement in family support. I really enjoyed working with family and children and so Barnardos was a good organisation I hoped I could get more involved with.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
The hardest part would be when a placement breaks down for a child. Especially when it’s a permanent placement, the emotional upset for both the child and caregivers is difficult. Many of the children brought in for foster care have challenging behaviours so it’s hard for them to build relationships and trust. It’s important and often challenging to educate parents about these behaviours and how best to manage these.

What is it about Barnardos that you like?
I like that Barnardos’ focus is solely on children. It’s an organisation that attracts good, happy people and so promotes a positive, friendly environment for both adults and children.

What is the best part of your job?
The best part would have to be the satisfaction of seeing a successful permanent placement become a reality. It sometimes takes a few years to see this success, but knowing that these children are growing up in a happy, secure and safe environment is extremely fulfilling.

What do you hope to achieve at Barnardos in the future?
It’d be good to have more resources available for foster children: to have more resources spent on training caregivers and to have more counselling and psychologists available for the children and their caregivers. This would support and strengthen the placements and help children reach their potential.