Carer fact sheet 13
Providing foster and kinship care
Keeping a life diary
Each child or young person in out-of-home care should have memories from their childhood and this includes their time spent in out-of-home care. Children and young people who are placed in out-of-home care often do not remember some of their life history, particularly if they experience many short-term placements.
For this reason it is important to keep a written record, such as a life diary or life story, for the child or young person as well as precious items, such as special toys, clothes, certificates, photos and mementos of special occasions to help the child or young person remember their life history.
A child or young person’s life diary can be quite simple. It can contain:
•	photographs
•	school certificates
•	details of special occasions
•	information about sports, hobbies or activities that the child or young person enjoys
•	information about their birth family
•	information about their medical history
•	information about the carer’s family
•	information about their child safety officers or other people of significance in their life.
You may have your own family tradition of keeping mementos and memories that you can pass on to a child or young person in your care. Your child safety officer or non-government foster and kinship care service support worker can also help with other ideas about how to gather and store information, such as scrapbooking.
They can offer ideas about how to present the life diary to the child or young person to keep when they leave your care.
For more information
To find out more information about keeping a life diary:
•	call the department’s general enquiries on 1800 811 810 or 3224 8045
•	visit www.communities.qld.gov.au/childsafety
•	visit your local child safety service centre
•	call Queensland Foster and Kinship Care on 3256 6166.