St. Anthony’s has employed a Reunification Officer whose specific role is to search for and identify families of children in residence. They work in close partnership with the resident Social Worker to identify children who would benefit from this. The Reunification Officer then begins the difficult task of locating family members which involves following up on leads with limited information and visiting various communities to make enquiries.

Once the family is located forums with the Social Workers who manage the case are held to form a co-operative partnership and establish a common ground for the reunification process. If the group agree to continue with the reunification, the child will then be prepared for visiting the family by the Reunification Officer. The relationship is positively developed through visits, letter correspondence and telephone contact.

When the time comes for permanent reunification a stringent After Care Support Programme is in place to monitor the child and family’s progress and visits from the Reunification Officer continue to take place.

In the year March 2008-09 we succeeded in reunifying 20 children:  ten children went to foster care with relatives, nine to biological parents and one child to adoption.