I first heard the word kinship/relative caregiver 15 years ago when I stepped in to care my niece, Kindra. She was just eight years old when I brought her into my home. At that time, the child welfare system in my county seemed unprepared to help and support me and I was left to navigate Read more >>
Dear Friend, Maybe you are a kin caregiver like me: a grandparent, aunt, or cousin who has stepped in to raise a child whose birth parents are struggling with addiction or mental illness. Perhaps you are a policymaker, in a position to make decisions that affect families like mine. Or maybe you are an advocate Read more >>
Child Care Budget Proposal The Alliance for Children’s Rights requests your support of a budget request to the state legislature to establish the Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children. Access to affordable child care is crucial for our youngest foster children. It is needed to recruit and retain loving foster families, stabilize foster placements, Read more >>
SB 1201 Aligning Criminal History Exemptions Placement with relatives is preferred by federal and state law because research indicates that these children experience fewer traumas and have better outcomes than children who are placed with non-relatives. Unfortunately, many foster children spend the first few months in foster care in shelters or with foster parents they Read more >>
A report was recently published by Generations United examining the plight of grandfamilies, defined as “grandparents, or other relatives of similar or older generations, [who] are the primary caregivers for children of their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews or grandchildren.” There are over 2.7 million grandfamilies nationwide and, as the report illustrates, these families are among Read more >>
United States Senators Wyden and Hatch put forward Resolution 266 making September 2015 National Kinship Care Month. The resolution is meant to recognize the grandparents and other relatives who are taking care of 2,700,000 kids who are living with them throughout the country. Kinship caregivers have been proven to provide safer and more stable households Read more >>
The Step Up Coalition is sponsoring multiple events to support relative caregivers and to shed light on the unique issues facing our kinship foster families.. First, we are hosting a five-part webinar series that will explore the struggles and inequalities our kinship caregivers face and the opportunities and challenges to providing the support, assistance and Read more >>
Children should be raised in loving and caring homes. In order to ensure that every child is raised in a family, California generally provides a family who finds it in their hearts to provide a home for children in foster care reimbursement for the added costs associated with caring for these children. Unfortunately, until recently, Read more >>
The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released the report “Every Kid Needs A Family,” which offers findings on the benefits of placing children in the child welfare system with family members or foster families instead of in congregate care placements. The central focus of this report is on the nearly 57,000 children and teenagers in Read more >>
Relative caregivers are the backbone of our child welfare system. Relative foster placements tend to lead to more long term placement stability and offer better connections to the child’s community. And yet, in California many of our relative caregivers are denied essential funding and services that they need to care for the children, particularly those Read more >>