‘POSTcards’ a Hit in Residential Services

We really appreciate stories from people who use our resources.

This year at Resi Rocks, a professional development day for residential workers in Victoria, hosted by the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, I had the pleasure of hearing about POSTcards from me to you,  and how they are being used by a residential team at Anglicare Victoria.

POSTcards was developed for youth and residential services to provide a communication channel between staff, carers and young people in care. It might be the ‘Got Your Back’, ‘Thank you’ or ‘Help’ cards for example.

The worker today shared his story, saying that each young person receives at least one POSTcard per month with a positive message from their worker. Sometimes these cards are tossed aside, but the message and the moment is not lost. He said that the aim was to build trust and rapport with the young person, and this very small acknowledgement can contribute to positive relationships between workers and young people.

One of the aims of POSTcards is to capture great moments and record them in a young person’s story book. The worker told me that when group activities are held with young people, photos are taken of the residents using the cards. These photos and cards are included in story books and when a young person leaves care, their book is given to them so that they can reflect back on positive experiences they had whilst in care.

Last year at ‘Resi Rocks’ we had the opportunity to run workshops using POSTcards. Here is an article about the workshops and the wonderful messages that residential workers wrote on some of the cards. (A link is also included below)

Georgena Stuckenschmidt

Other articles about using POSTcards from me to you

POSTcards: Sometime to send sometimes to keep

‘POST cards’ are a hit at ‘Resi Rocks’