IFCA NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2008
07 – 09 November 2008
IRISH FOSTER CARE ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE 2008:‘Reaching out, does make a difference'.
The highly successful National Focus on Fostering campaign closed the weekend of the Irish Foster Care Association (IFCA) Annual Conference which was launched in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath on Friday, 7th November and ran until lunchtime Sunday, 9th November. The event was jointly hosted by the Irish Foster Care Association Louth, Meath, Cavan & Monaghan branches and the HSE North East Region.
Aidan Waterstone, National Specialist Children and Family Services opened the conference on Friday night and Minister Barry Andrews formally opened proceedings on Saturday morning.
Main speakers on Saturday included David Coleman, clinical psychologist, broadcaster and author, Geoffrey Shannon, Solicitor and senior lecturer in family and child law at the Law Society of Ireland and Danielle Coady, former foster child who is now a postgraduate student in WIR studying for a Masters degree in Applied Social Studies.
Alice Parkinson, Conference Chairperson said "We have had an interesting, interactive and enjoyable conference with over 250 foster carers and social workers attending the many workshops on Saturday. This is a major event in the IFCA calendar year and branches in the North East were very privileged to host this event in conjunction with the HSE".