Jessica Stojkovski and brother Charles open up about their childhood and state of WA’s foster care system

Jessica Stojkovski and her brother Charles have opened up for the first time about their childhood, and the good, bad and ugly of WA’s foster care system. The system is stretched, with more than 5,000 children in care and reports of more than 71,000 children “of concern”, but the Child Protection Minister denies it is broken. “Saying that we have to fix it actually does a disservice to the people that are doing that really hard work,” Ms Stojkovski said. Three decades after welcoming a new brother into her family, Ms Stojkovski still remembers the day Charles moved in. “Mum had even made a cake,”she said. “She had found out what your favourite meal was, I think it was steak and Mum made steak and veggies and a cake.” Charles remembers immediately being made to feel welcomed. “It was just shy of balloons,” he said. “It was pretty daunting. However that was made easy by visiting Jess and the family on weekends first, so it made it comfortable.” He doesn’t like thinking about what might have been, if they never met. “I don’t really look at the other branch. I’ve made what I can of what I was dealt with,” he said. “This is the path, I’m sticking to it and I’m happy.” Charles was 13-years-old and needed a fresh start, after a previous foster placement broke down. “The idea of having an older big brother sort of intrigued me, because I wasn’t going to be the bossy pants anymore and I was going to be a middle child.” Ms Stojkovski said. “We had an easy transition though, it’s not always that smooth and it’s not always long term . . . reunification is the primary goal for many cases.” Not bossy, maybe, but Charles said his little sister was always “opinionated” and destined to follow their father - former Labor MP Tony O’Gorman - into politics. “Jessica was always intrigued by how it all worked and what she can do better,” he said. “That was proven from school, at primary school, just trying to make a difference.” Her first political campaign, aged 11, convinced Eddystone Primary School to let girls wear shorts. “I loved cartwheeling and handstands so I had a real issue,” she laughed. “I’ve always been a pain in the ass, pretty sure that’s what he wants to say!” Now she’s in charge of a system that young lives depend on, motivated by personal experience. “The priority is making sure that the service delivery that we give to either kids that come into care is bright,” she said. “We’re not a perfect family, but I think understanding that there are genuinely kids out there that would thrive in a foster care environment is really important. “We are what would probably be referred to as a traditional family - Mum, Dad, children - but that’s not the only model of care. Same sex couples can foster, single people can foster. There’s no upper kind of age barriers.” Ms Stojkovski is urging more Western Australians to consider making spare room in their home, as Foster Care Week gets underway on Monday July 28. “There’s emotional demands,” she said. “I was lucky we never had to say goodbye to Charlie, but I had to say goodbye to other siblings. “That can be challenging, but you’re there to support a young person through their journey.”