Meet the Affinity Fostering Team

Floria

Affinity Fostering was founded in 2013. Unlike many fostering agencies, Affinity is a familiy business and this sense of family is visible in the close-knit team we’ve established.

Many of the team have known each other for years and worked together before Affinity was created. They are all dedicated to providing the best support for our foster carers, their families, and the young people that we place in their care.

We always need to recruit new carers to meet the needs of the children and young people in Lincolnshire, Essex, Kent and Medway and London. And this is where Floria comes in.

Floria is Affinity Fostering’s Carer Recruitment Officer. She will most likely be the first person you speak to when you contact us about fostering. We know that it can be daunting to take those first steps into fostering, but Floria really does make it so easy for you. She’ll be in regular contact with you, holding your hand through the process.

Before joining the Affinity Fostering Team, Floria worked in carer recruitment for various fostering agencies. She now feels she has found her home with Affinity Fostering and would love more foster carers to make it their home too.

"One of the things I love about Affinity Fostering is that it is a family business. I love what we stand for, our values and I genuinely feel part of a team who cares deeply about the children and the carers who support them. Affinity doesn’t have a distant, corporate feel; we are a family and support one another to make a difference to children and young people.

I was taken aback when I first met our foster carers at support group. They were all so positive, engaging, and you could see that they all support each other too. It’s a special community we have here

Fostering is important to me. I feel passionate about finding the right carers for the children we support. I’ve seen first-hand, as I’ve got to know the carers and children, how much of an impact fostering can have and how children flourish when they are well-matched with carers who go that extra mile to nurture them.

My role as Carer Recruitment Officer is to help people in their journey into fostering. I love getting to know people at the point where they are thinking of fostering and being with them on the journey to the point where they are approved and welcoming their first child. It feels like a real privilege to be alongside people who want to make a difference.

Many people ask me what I look for in a potential foster carer. I would say I look for passion, kindness, empathy and a genuine caring nature towards children, and someone who truly wants to help our vulnerable children.

When it comes to the Affinity Fostering family, I have so many hopes and dreams. My main hope is that we would be able to match carers with all the children who need them and that we wouldn’t need to turn any child away. This is what really motivates me to seek out new carers and support them on their journey.

Failing that, I’d like to win the lottery and take all our children and carers away to a location of their choice for the holiday of a lifetime. I love to travel; I particularly love the Greek Islands. I know how travel can broaden your life experience. Recently, a group of our children went to the Isle of Wight for a few days. For some of them, it was the first time they’d been away and it was so wonderful to see how much they got out of it.

I may be unlikely to win the lottery, but I do believe we have something special here at Affinity and I’d love to share that with like-minded people who come to us with only a spare room and a desire to make a difference to children. That is the winning ticket."

If you’d like to speak to Floria about fostering, you can contact her on 01245 237 158 or email at info@affinityfostering.com. Or you can request a call back from her.

As Floria says, “Just do it! You won’t regret it.”