Keys to a local Kinship Resource Center

Alone. That’s how thousands of kinship families feel. The experiences involved in being a kinship family in communities can certainly make adult caregivers and children in schools feel very different from those they meet daily. Communities that recognize the strength of kinship families can go a long way to embrace and support the Grandfamily efforts to secure the children.
A strong Kinship Care Resource Center in communities can:
- Help families through specific resources in social services, health, counseling, schools.
- Provide gatherings where families can share and learn together.
- Advocate in the community for cross-over services in housing, transportation and other intergenerational planning
- Provide tools and a library of resources on specific issues – social security, teen issues, financial aid, tax issues, medical resources, etc.
What does a strong Kinship Care Resource Center need?
1. Financial and structural support of an umbrella organization such as Senior Center, University program, YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Intermediate School District, Community Action Agency, the community list is numerous.
Note: Some local Kinship Care groups can become their own entity, but they will need to become a non-profit incorporated organization (Federally 501(c)(3) recognized) in order to be strong enough to survive.
2. A paid coordinator (director, head honcho) that will develop the programming, seek funding and strengthen the Resource Center for years to come.
3. Publicity. A telephone, online, media and personal contact in the community. Kin families are out there but unfortunately many have become suspicious of organizations or they just don’t have the facility to get to the resource that can help them.
4. Money, ok, Funding. A budget that is funded in at least three different ways:
-through the umbrella organization support
-through non-profit grants
-a strong community fundraising plan.
5. Accountability. Built into every program should be a means of financial accounting and policies of conduct that protect the integrity of the Center.
Section III pp 147 to 180 of A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children for Grandparents and Other Relatives as Parents discusses the development of establishing a Comprehensive Kinship Care Resource Center in every community. The main keys are Leadership, Determination, and a Community that cares about all of its families.
Now for some news:
The Brookdale Foundation announces the RAPP Local Seed Grant Initiative for 2008-2009. Copies of the RFP guidelines and application forms for the Local Initiative may be downloaded from www.brookdalefoundation.org in September 2008. The deadline for submission of local proposals is December 4, 2008. Up to 30 local agencies will be chosen from throughout the United States to receive a $10,000 grant over a two-year period. Matching support in cash or in-kind will be required of all selected agencies. The sponsoring agency must be a 501(c)(3) entity or have equivalent tax-free status.
Go for it!
Love,
Tita

KINSHIP SERVICE PROVIDERS - GETTING TO KNOW YOU

What a great experience this outreach has been for both the book, A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children, and the newsletter Kinship Care Notes. As we work to revise mailing lists and answer requests to be included, we are learning that kinship family not only means grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and older siblings and really good family friends, but also the working community in Kinship Care – the social workers, the area aging representatives, the YM/WCA and Salvation Army committees, the legal aid representatives anxious to provide accurate information to mind-boggling complications of some kinship care situations. Your responses to the most recent Kinship Care Notes e-mail newsletter is downright wonderful.
The next Kinship Care Notes will be sent next week with legislative news, contacts and little informational pieces from A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children.
By the way, anyone interested can check out the book at www.chicagoroadpublishing.com or at booksellers Amazon.com or Abebooks.com . Mid-Michigan folks can buy a copy at either Schuler’s Independent Book Stores in Lansing area.
Any information you may want to share in the newsletters can be sent to info@chicagoroadpublishing.com
I will try hard to keep the blogs more current. There is so much to share with this very special community. In the meantime, keep summering.
Tita

Ah, summer. I write this on a beautiful Michigan summer day (which changes quickly). Low humidity, birds singing, sunshine and flowers. Not a time to think about (yikes!) SCHOOL! If you are new to kinship care and know the children will be with you in the fall, you probably should start making your lists so there will be a smooth transition.
The list not only includes regular kid stuff (clothes and supplies), but the business of registering. In the book, A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children for Grandparents and Other Relatives As Parents, the chapter titled “School: A Child’s Full Time Job” divides the task of school preparation into two parts – Registering and Living with School; Educational support from home.
It is the registering of children that requires some thoughtful summer preparation. Here we go:
Call the school system or visit so they can get to know you. Ask about the required paperwork for registering children even if it is a school they have already been attending. Kinship caregivers may need:
Birth certificate
Proof of certain required immunizations
Test results for grade level (from previous school), and
Proof of the kin’s authorization to care for the child such as guardianship papers.
Let’s talk about these items. Often, in the urgency of placement or the disarray of the child’s life with parents, records required for moving smoothly through our society may be lost. Documents like the birth certificate or immunizations will require time to update.
If the children have already attended school, start with the previous system to have records forwarded to the new school. Kin will need official authorization for this request.
If the child is just beginning or previous school records are not available, try another route: for lost birth certificates contact the state Office of Records where the child was born. There may be another step involved here – the child’s social security number (1.800.772.1213, or www.ssa.gov ).
For immunization records, kin could try to contact the doctor or clinic where the early childhood shots were provided. If not, bringing children up-to-date will have to start now in the summer.
Some school systems will only accept court ordered documentation of the kin’s authority – guardianship, temporary child welfare placement, or adoption. Other forms such as Power of Attorney or consent of parents may not be acceptable. Be sure to have this documentation in place before school starts.
Children in relative placement will have the help of the agency to get through the process of registering for school. Children who are with kin at the request of parents may need parent involvement in obtaining the necessary records. We’ll do another blog later on kids and getting ready for school. As you all know, every situation is different. Advocating for the children requires stamina. Take your vitamins.
Love,
Tita

KINSHIP CARE ASSISTANCE ISSUE

I’m wrestling with an issue regarding kinship care. This week significant legislation passed the House of Representatives in support of kinship care families. House Resolution 6307 called Fostering Connections to Success specifically addresses concerns to kinship foster care families that include funding, services for children aging out of foster care, training for social service workers on the specifics of the funds, and other issues that have been of real concern to relative foster care providers. See an analysis of the bill at http://www.alliance1.org/Public_Policy/welfare/Fostering_Connections.pdf . The next step for this critical piece of legislation is the U.S. Senate.

I strongly support this critical child welfare step to assist kinship care families that are in the child welfare system. What I am wrestling with is the struggles facing the majority of kinship care providers, those who are not in the child welfare system, who are caring for children in their family full time against some terrific odds with little or no help at all.

Approximately fifteen percent of children in kinship care are living with relatives because they have been the victims of child abuse or neglect and placed by the child welfare system with approved and willing relatives, most in Relative Foster Care. All the other relative caregivers in our country have willingly taken children through request of the parents or some other source not in the child welfare system, including military or incarcerated parents. These families struggle with many of the same issues as their colleagues – obtaining guardianship, lack of health insurance protection, working with schools and medical systems, extreme costs involved with raising children in today’s world including child care. Most of the voluntary caregivers (60%) are grandparents who accepted their role of parenting again out of love for the children and a sense of duty to protect the children. One fourth of these grandparent providers are living below the poverty level. I am wrestling with the issue of how our society can address the concerns faced by the families who are not in the child welfare system. Any thoughts about this?

Kids Central, Inc A Strong Kinship Resource Center Model

As a result of the publication of the book, A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children for Grandparents and Other Relatives As Parents, I have had the opportunity to speak with a variety of groups. The audiences vary from professionals who work with kinship families, to kinship families themselves, to general bookstore visitors.

Kinship care is multicultural and as traditional for as long as we have walked the earth together. Perhaps that is why our society has an apathetic attitude about kinship care. Yet today’s caregivers, millions of them, are faced with extreme difficulties in their effort to secure the children.

The best way to strengthen families and thereby strengthen communities is to establish Kinship Care Resource Centers (KCRC) in accessible geographic areas. These Resource Centers can be satellites of a larger central group such as a University Extension Department, an aging service, Social Service Agencey, or a family oriented organization such as a YMCA. The KCRC should have just a few critical ingredients – someone who is accessible to families (a paid coordinator who knows the issues and who knows the community) and a structure that will ensure the life of the center in the long term as families grow up and new families come in.

The third section of A Kinship Guide is like a book within a book - step by step ways to establish a Comprehensive Kinship Care Resource Center in the local community, activities that strengthen the Center’s service to families and ways to secure the service in communities.

Kids Central, Inc in Ocala, Florida serves children in many ways from placement services for child maltreatment to age-out services to those young people who age out of foster care but still need a launching transition to their adult life. One impressive area of Kids Central, Inc is the significant outreach to kinship families. In a recent phone call, one staffer told me they just established five more kinship groups in the rural areas. The groups start with an eight week curriculum called Second Time Around that covers many of the basic concerns facing new kinship families. The groups also meet together for support and to break that sense of feeling alone in the task. Families in the groups have a strong link to the kinship care specialist in Ocala for specific needs. Kids Central, Inc is a great model for community support of kinship families. For more information check online www.kiscentralinc.org

Affectionately,
Tita

KINSHIP CARE FOR ELIZABETH

I often receive responses to the Kincare blog that are not published on the site. Some are like Elizabeth, an aunt who wants her niece to come to her loving home rather than to foster care. There are many dynamics to these questions. The situation of a relative intervening in the removal and placement of a related child depends on many things:
-The State in which the child and the intervening relative live. Every State responds to these issues differently. Most states do participate in an Interstate Compact with other state child welfare departments specifically for these types of cases. The relative must do research on the particular states involved and the process for interstate placement of the children.
-The circumstances of the removal – is the child welfare plan weighty on reunification with the parent or is this a more permanent removal?
-Timing of when the relative finds out about the impending placement. If a child is already placed in foster care, the relative’s plan of intervention will require action with the court involved. If the child has not yet been removed, the relative may be able to work with the child welfare agency that is authorized for the placement.
-Of course, the relative must also be concerned with their own ability to raise the child. The agency will do an investigation of safety for the child in the relative’s home. But also the relative must do some serious soul searching to determine the long haul which includes issues like extra finances for legal, medical, and therapeutic costs. Time to parent, other children in the home and other relatives are to be considered as well.
-The type of arrangement with the child welfare agency managing the case – will the relative be licensed as Kinship Foster Care? Or is the placement with the intention of Guardianship or eventually Adoption?
Sources relatives can use to determine the answers to some of these questions (and there will be many more questions – take your vitamins):
1. Begin with the child welfare workers involved. Be pleasant. Let them know your availability as a relative caregiver. Learn what the situation is and the intentions of the agency regarding reunification.
2. Study the state(s) child welfare policies on placement. Check to see if there is a central Kinship Care resource in the state – often a person in the state department of Health and Human Services is very knowledgeable and advocates for relatives. Ask. If the child welfare department does not have a kinship care advocate, check with a university extension office, AARP in the state, Child Welfare League of America, the statewide Area Agency on Aging, Office of Aging Services, local Senior Center or (see the Resources section of A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children – www.chicagorroadpublishing.com we tried to get a central resource in every state). The senior resources are leaders in the kinship care movement because nearly 2/3rds of providers are grandparents raising grandchildren.
3. Talk to an attorney who specializes in family law to find out what you many need to do to secure a child as a guardian. Before you get too deep into the legal entities be sure you know the costs you may face, the distances that are involved, and of course the timing of the possible placement/reunification.
This is just a beginning. Every State is different in their approach to child welfare, even smaller jurisdictions within states are different from each other. Learning all you can, understanding your own capabilities in raising a possibly troubled child in your own situation, and being able to respond to sudden changes are critical in the early days of considering Kinship Care.
Elizabeth, I cannot answer the specific questions in your situation, but if you write to me with a contact number, I may be able to direct you to sources that can help: info@chicagoroadpublishing.com . Kinship care providers are so dismissed in our society, yet the more than 3 million relative caregivers are, in most cases, the angels to families in trouble. I wish you well in your efforts on the difficult road ahead.
Affectionately,
Tita

Grandparents and Other Relatives Take a Stand at Grand Rally

More than 1000 grandfamilies put aside their daily tasks to make the trip to our nation's Capitol May 7. That may not mean much to many in this big city who can navigate the subways and buses without hesitation or those who can afford their own drivers to do the navigation. But to families coming from rural America and even bigger towns, getting around Washington D.C. can be an adventure. Yet many with children in tow reached out to be part of the demonstration for awareness of kinship care needs. Six million children in this country depend on our nation's leaders taking the needs of kinship families seriously.
The goal was to encourage legislators to get on board for The Kinship Caregiver Support Act (S. 661 and H.R. 2188). This act would help relatives in many ways:

• those with children in foster care to be able to care for them permanently. Federal funds would also help relative guardians receive similar assistance,
• require states to notify relatives when children have been removed from the parents,
• provide for flexible licensing standards for relative foster care,
• establish The Kinship Navigator Program in each state to help link relative caregivers to resources and services for children,
• assist relative care for older youth who exit foster care to receive education and training vouchers for college and other independent living services.

Considering the millions of dollars kinship care providers save states in residential care of children, these small costs in the Kinship Caregiver Support Act are a big step forward for millions of children and their relative caregivers.
There are currently 29 sponsors in the Senate and 59 in the House of Representatives. To find out more about S.661 and H.R. 2188 and where your representatives stand contact Generations United www.gu.org or your legislative representative.
There will be many blogs coming up on the big trip for me including a review of an exceptional kinship program in central Florida called Kids Central Inc. Keep checking the blog.
Peace,
Tita