Colleague Sílvia Sidera, social educator at Fundación Infància i Familia, writes at Punt avui as part of the week of foster care

Little is said, or still unknown, of collaborating families when we talk about foster care. After working a handful of years in a CRAE, I have been able to see and live that there are children and young people who need to complement their educational process with a different model of affective relationship to that offered by the CRAE due to the infrastructure of the center, and that they have no opportunity to live in family environments because they come from social situations with many shortcomings and, in most cases, they do not have adult references, except for educators, teachers or monitors. And this complementary model can be that of a collaborating family.

This is possible thanks to the Collaborating Families Programme, aimed at children from 9 years of age, which offers their integration into families during weekend periods and holidays. These families share their free time and a family environment, helping them in their integral training process, sharing experiences, and being emotional and affective support. With all these years as a CRAE educator, and now as a family fostering technique, I can attest that this is a beautiful and necessary project, and that there are many children and young people to whom the collaborating families can also change their lives.