Our People

Fiona Endacott has a Bachelor of Social Work, a Double Advanced Diploma in Management and Human Resources, a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration and is currently completing her MBA. Her work history is also impressive - having come to CF&KC-SA after a long stint working in mental health, most recently as Manager: Operations for Skylight Mental Health.

Fiona has already made her mark on our organisation – having worked on our winning tender, achieved our quality accreditation and established and managed our very committed advocacy team. She is a  mother of two and deeply committed to the wellbeing of children and Carers.

Sharee joined the CF&KC-SA team in September 2020 as Senior Advocate.

Sharee joins us with 20 years of experience within the community sector and in the final stages of completion of a Bachelor of Social Work. Sharee's extensive career started in the early childhood sector as a Team Leader, and as an educator in the education sector with Tafe SA and Gowrie SA. Sharee has worked in the Department of Child Protection, and for the past six years has been the Practice Lead at Time for Kids.

Sharee prides herself on building relationships and working in partnership with children and families towards achieving optimal outcomes.

Sharee brings a wealth of knowledge, commitment, energy and passion, in particular for children and families, and we are excited to have her join the team.

Sharee is a mother of two girls and has a love for their 3 dogs whom she also sees as her four legged children.

Isabella joined CF&KC-SA as a Carer Advocate in July 2021, supporting both foster and kinship carers. Isabella has completed her Bachelor of Social Work with experience working in this space as she completed her university placements with the organisation. Her time during placements gave her experience working with foster and kinship Carers giving insight to Carer experiences and understanding the diverse challenges they can face. Isabella was offered the 6 month role of Carer Education Officer in June 2020 to develop and publish educational resources for the Carer community. Through this role Isabella developed strengths in facilitating reference groups, organising Carer information session and publishing Carer guides. Through her time with the organisation, her passion has continually grown and is excited to now be fulfilling the role as Carer Advocate.

Chloe commenced as Carer Advocate in January 2024

Chloe's journey into foster and kinship care began during her university placement at CF&KC-SA in July 2023. Chloe holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of South Australia. With experience in project management and business development, she brings a fresh perspective to her role as a Carer Advocate. Chloe is passionate about upholding justice and advocating the rights of Carers and their families. She is grateful and excited for the opportunity to make a positive impact in this field.

Niamh joined CF&KC-SA as a Carer Advocate in March 2024. Niamh is currently in the final year of her Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Honours) at Flinders University and is completing her Honours thesis in the Child Protection and Family Law space.

Niamh first met the CF&KC-SA team in 2021 at our first Child Protection & the Law Professional Development day which she attended as a student. She subsequently volunteered with us in 2022, providing legal research and writing assistance for our submission to the Independent Inquiry into Foster & Kinship Care in South Australia.

Being part of a family that Cares and a proud big sister of four wonderful young people, she is passionate about providing support and advocacy to Foster and Kinship Carers and ensuring that the Statement of Commitment is upheld by all. With her legal education background, Niamh is proud of the work CF&KC-SA continue to do to enact systemic changes for the benefit of all young people in Care, and their families

Natalie joined CF&KC-SA in December 2016 as Administration and Events Coordinator.

Natalie is experienced working in key administrative roles in health, research and University sectors and also event management, including key organiser of the International Conference on Community Health Research in 2009. A mother of two, she is an enthusiastic and active member of school Governing Council and Parents & Friends Committee. Natalie enjoys interacting with families and the community and is excited to apply her skills and knowledge to her role with CF&KC-SA.

We welcome Lauren to the team, who commenced her role as Carer Council Project Lead in October 2023.

Lauren's fostering journey started when she was eighteen and her parents became foster carers. Many years later, Lauren is now a specialist foster carer herself and a carer member of CF&KC-SA.

Lauren has a Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice, a Bachelor of International Relations, a Bachelor of Letters (Spanish), and a Diploma of Community Services Work.

Prior to joining CF&KC-SA, Lauren was working as a lawyer with a social justice focus. She also has experience across the community services sector in aged care, disability and youth work. Notably, Lauren has experience as a youth worker with children in residential and emergency care and has worked at a primary school in Spain as an English language assistant.

Emma joined CF&KC-SA as a research intern in March 2021, taking on employment as the Project Officer in January 2022. As an intern, Emma conducted a research report on the monetary cost of foster and kinship caring to carers in SA. Her role later progressed to Project Officer & Inquiry Support Officer to help carers make submissions during the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Foster and Kinship Care.

As Project Officer, Emma supports CF&KC-SA to execute systemic advocacy by (for example) identifying inquiries and making submissions, running reference groups, ensuring survey data is fit for purpose and representative of the foster and kinship carer community in SA, and applying for grants to assist with operational objectives.

Emma holds qualifications in youth work, and a Bachelor of Social Sciences, bringing with her perspectives from being employed as a research assistant in The University of Adelaide’s School of Social Sciences, and Law School, and a volunteer youth worker in the community services sector both locally and abroad. Emma is passionate about continuing to learn, analyse, and explore ways we can address social inequality both in theory and practice.

“Our foster and kinship families are, unfortunately, an example of a vulnerable demographic that are overlooked when it comes to policy and legislation that would otherwise protect their rights. Collectively, carers are marginalised and under-resourced, so whatever the project may be, I really hope that my contribution helps to improve conditions for these families.”

Matt holds a BSc and is currently a PhD candidate (science),  bringing a data driven approach to our work in systemic advocacy.

Matt started volunteering with CF&KC-SA in early 2023, working on systemic issues connected to Carer mental health and wellbeing. In October 2023 Matt then joined us as a Project Officer, and has since specialised in topics and issues surrounding Carer remuneration, attraction, and retention.

Matt is passionate about ensuring Carers are fairly treated and compensated for their caring role, and is especially interested in realising superannuation support for all Carers.

Introducing Rebecca Smith, our inaugural foster carer research Masters student in residence!

Rebecca has accepted our invitation to take up “residence” in our office and we are delighted to support her vital research Masters project that will most certainly benefit the SA family based carer community in the near future.

My name is Rebecca Smith
I have been an occupational therapist for over 20 years working in community health, education and disability sectors. I have done some work in aged care and mental health, but primarily worked in paediatrics (i.e. working with children and their families). In this work I frequently supported children and families involved in the child protection system.
I have also been a registered foster carer for over 15 years. I started as a respite carer and have continued this at various times throughout being a carer. I have been a long-term carer for 15 years for a young woman who has now aged out of the system, but is still in my care. I am now returning to being a respite carer.

I have recently started a part-time research Masters at the University of South Australia (Uni SA) where my project is: "Exploration of current practices supporting foster carers using play as a therapeutic tool with children in their care." This project has two phases. As this is an area that currently hasn't been well researched, the first phase of my project is to do a scoping review to explore the current literature regarding the use of therapeutic play with children in foster care in order to identify gaps and reported benefits. The second phase will involve running focus groups with some of the foster care support agencies to explore current practices, barriers and opportunities for the use of therapeutic play. At this stage I will be working on phase 1 in 2024 and phase 2 in 2025.

While I am doing this research I am going to be basing myself at the CF&KC-SA office one day a fortnight.