Torn from her parents and put into foster care when she was two years of age, Lucy says for the 16 years she was in care she had no identity.

A childhood spent dreaming of a mother and father she never knew, with no sense of connection and no sense of place ...

Another stolen generation.

Lucy, not her real name, believes children in foster care are forgotten people.

Many don't know their history, their biological parents or if they have brothers or sisters.

"Nobody acknowledges foster kids - no one," she says.

“Being ripped away from your parents is a massive trauma. I grew up thinking my parents didn’t want me and that they were awful people.

“It doesn’t exactly set you up for positive social and emotional development.”

When Lucy was three, she was put in permanent care and became a big sister to five other foster children.

Lucy, now 18, says she is part of a “stolen generation” and didn't find out her birth father was Aboriginal until she was 16.

Since then she has been trying to access her files from the Department of Community Services to find out more about her birth parents and why she was taken from them.

Lucy remembers being told different stories about her birth parents from foster carers and case workers – many of them conflicting.

"I was really confused," she says.

Currently she has only three pieces of paper documenting her history as a foster child.

What she has learned since is that she was taken into care due to her mother’s ongoing mental health problems and her biological father had his hands full coping.

But not knowing any of that left wounds that would not heal.

And those wounds hurt her relationship with her foster parents.

At 17, Lucy says she was asked to leave home when the relationship with her foster father fell apart.

She was forced to resort to couch-surfing her way through the hospitality of friends while she was completing her HSC.

Lucy says she was one of the lucky ones – she persisted with her education, refusing to give up.

"So many children don't know their history and can't connect with their family or birth parents," she says.

"They've been so disrupted during life and they end up on the street and end up doing the wrong thing.”

Lucy worries the foster care system sets young children up to fail later in life and says there is a huge number of children needing homes on the Border.

Agencies are well aware of that demand  – and the strain it places on both foster parents and the children in care

Upper Murray Family Care's Jeanine Aughey says between April and June this year the organisation was asked to find homes for 97 children.

They could only place 62.

"The demand for carers is so high due to the increasing pressure on vulnerable families," Ms Aughey says.

"Other factors include the impact of mental health, drug and alcohol and domestic violence on an individual's ability to care for a child."

Ms Aughey says there is a lack of awareness of the foster care system and the need for carers in the community.

She also believes carers do not receive enough recognition for the role they play in supporting vulnerable children.

But she also agrees children in foster care are often disconnected from their communities - particularly when they are taken in by carers from other regions.

Compounding this problem is the limited access to support services.

Ms Aughey believes that providing children with opportunities to be connected to family and significant people in their lives allows them to meet their full potential.

Lucy agrees but despite having a job and now being independent, she is only too aware of the effects foster care can have on children for the rest of their lives.

“I know of one kid who is too scared to apply for a job because a carer burnt holes in his face to try and fix a skin problem,” she says.

“He is living on $200 a fortnight and paying for rent and food - which is nothing - and is too anxious to hand in a resume.

"He was in about 80 foster care homes around here."

In her heart of hearts, Lucy doesn't really believe she should have been taken away from her birth parents in the first place.

She says if there had been better support services in place to support them, perhaps her own life story may have been different.

Anglicare Riverina general manager Brad Addison says that after working in the system for almost 20 years, seeing kids removed from their birth family is still incredibly upsetting.

"Foster carers do amazing work – but in a perfect world all kids would be living at home with their mum and dad," he says.

Mr Addison says young children are entering the system at a rapid rate.

"FaCS (Department of Family and Community Services) and other groups are investing a lot more in early intervention and family preservation but we're still not stemming that tide," he says.

"We need to do more to support families and intervene to keep kids safe with their families wherever possible."

Anglicare is always looking for carers from diverse backgrounds, Mr Addison adds.

"We recruit single people, young couples, same-sex couples and older couples," he says.

Changes to the system in the past four years has allowed FaCS to focus on child protection while non-government agencies such as Anglicare turned its attention to foster care, Mr Addison said.  

A FaCS spokesman says a particular area of focus for the department is the recruitment of Aboriginal foster carers for indigenous children and young people, to ensure they maintain their connection to culture and community.

The spokesman says changes to legislation in October last year, as part of the Safe Home for Life reform package, eased the adoption process for foster carers, step parents, relatives or others wishing to adopt a child in New South Wales.

"The legislation aims to reduce red tape around adoption to improve the lives of children and young people and find the best possible permanent option for children in out-of-home care," he says.

Lucy is not so sure that’s a good thing.

"They are talking about speeding up the process of adoption, allowing more people to adopt," she says.

"That's just bringing up another stolen generation.

"The government needs to provide more funds to non-government services and more support services.

"All I have in mind is the wellbeing of my siblings still in care, their future and the future of other foster children around here."

Anybody wanting more information about foster care can phone Jeanine Aughey, Upper Murray Family Care, on (02) 6055 8000 or visitwww.umfc.com.au.