We thank Peter Fegan and Channel 9 News Queensland, for supporting the work Little Stars Kids are doing through our Little Stars Learners program to bridge the education gap between kids in out-of-home care and their peers. Thanks also to foster carer Katie for sharing her perspective on the unique and life-changing work we are doing with the Little Stars Learners program.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Many of Queensland’s disadvantaged children a life of crime can often be the path they choose, but there’s one Brisbane charity providing a better life for hundreds of children each day through education programs. It might be a small office in Brisbane’s east, but Lisa Honeychurch is making a huge difference. Lisa runs a not-for-profit charity called Little Stars Kids that goes into the bat for children who are taken away from their parents.
Lisa said, “We provide trauma-informed one-on-one, in-home tutoring for children who have experienced abuse and neglect”. But it’s a bigger picture. Lisa and her team are trying to paint. Little Stars Kids is the only early intervention organization helping kids in primary school in the hope of luring them away from a life of crime. “Once these children are in high school, they will have already fallen behind their peers. They’ve lost confidence. Their self-esteem is low”
Just over 11,000 children are in foster care or care homes across the state. Little Stars Kids looks after some 200 of them in the southeast. Lisa said, “We would love to be able to service at least the Brisbane and Gold Coast areas as a start.”
They survive on donations including the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Trust, but they currently have no state government funding. Lisa reports “Little Stars Kida always needs more funding from the government and from corporate sponsors to expand our program”.
Lisa introduced Nine News to foster carer Katie who has cared for more than 100 children. And many of those children have turned their lives around thanks to Little Stars Kids. According to Katie “They prove there’s such a gap between children in care and children not in care. That gap can only be solved by changing something. And I think that’s what Little Stars offers that no other charity, no one has had a solution to the problem before.”
