Strengthening Support for Kinship Caregivers
During Kinship Care Month, in September and year round, it is important to honor and support the many relatives and family friends who step up to raise kids when their parents are unable to care for them. America whose caregivers are their grandparents and other relatives. Kinship care helps maintain family and community connections for the estimated 2.46 million children in America whose caregivers are their grandparents, other relatives or close family friends. Kids in kinship care experience a range of other positive outcomes, as well, compared to those in non-kin foster care.
Three kinship resources offer best practices for agencies and caseworkers who want to strengthen services for kinship families. They include:
- A podcast recorded for the Child Welfare Information Gateway of the Administration for Children and Families.
- A training video series produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
- A strategy paper from Casey Family Programs.
All of these resources agree that young people and their relatives should play a role in the planning and managing of foster care relationship dynamics — from the moment the child is removed from their home through the challenges of recruiting relative caregivers. This allows children and youth to identify relatives who are supportive and lets caregivers express concerns about the effect of their new roles on their own well-being. By making families’ needs a priority, kinship care can provide positive outcomes for youth.
Resources for Kinship Care Providers
1. Podcast: Highlighting Rhode Island’s Approach to Kinship Care
On the Child Welfare Information Gateway’s podcast, employees of Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) discuss their customer-service approach to kinship care. In the episode entitled “Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers, Part 1,” presenters DCYF’s Melissa E. Aguiar-Rivard, chief of practice standards, Recruitment, Development and Support; Lori D’Alessio, deputy chief of licensing; and Dorn Dougan, regional director, DCYF Region discuss how DCYF cultivates relationships with family members and others who are closely connected to children in need of a home.
DCYF has established a team dedicated to family search and engagement — a collection of strategies that help locate and engage family members and fictive kin for children who enter foster care. Peers who have experience in kinship relationships mentor the caregivers. The state provides financial support for kinship care, and in recent years, has expanded and enhanced its family-based care services. The Casey Foundation also provided the state with technical assistance on child welfare services, including kinship support in the past decade.
Listen to Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 on supporting kinship caregivers from the Child Welfare Information Gateway.
2. Video Training Series: Kinship Relationships Improve Youth Outcomes
“Engaging Kinship Caregivers: Managing Risk Factors in Kinship Care,” is a five-part video training series for child welfare professionals led by Joseph Crumbley, a therapist, author and public speaker with expertise in kinship care.
Crumbley discusses feelings around family loyalty, loss, hope and guilt — all stirred when a child is moved from a birth parent to a relative.
Produced by the Casey Foundation, the training aims to improve outcomes for children by strengthening caseworkers’ understanding and skills for supporting kinship relationships. The series also includes a discussion guide.
3. Strategy Brief: Recruiting and Supporting Relative Caregivers
What Are Some Examples of Effective Family Search and Engagement?, a strategy paper from Casey Family Programs, describes promising approaches used to find relatives or other important adults who can become caregivers, provide permanent homes or offer caring, lifelong support for children and teens. The brief recommends:
- Cultivating a kin-first agency culture, which values kinship placement as the norm, not the exception.
- Honoring child and family cultural identities.
- Assigning dedicated staff to identify family.
- Partnering with families in decisions.
- Removing licensing barriers.
It also describes various models and tools that have been effective in identifying and supporting kinship families. One example for supporting families: Providing a specialist to help families access concrete and community resources and to assist them in establishing support networks. Additionally, the brief notes that child welfare agencies “must implement culturally appropriate practices and activities in support of families’ race/ethnicity, faith/religious connections, family language, food, and other traditions while children are in placement,” to ensure that kids can maintain or develop connections to their cultural identity and community.
More Resources
- What is Kinship Care?
- Family Ties, a five-part report series on kinship care policy by the Casey Foundation.
- Kin, First and Foremost: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Path Forward for Kinship Care by Think of Us.
- Grandfamilies.org: A national legal resource in support of grandfamilies within and outside the child welfare system.
- Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network: A national technical assistance center for those serving kinship or grandfamilies.
Resources for Kinship Caregivers and Their Communities
- Coping with the Unique Challenges of Kinship Care: A four-part video training series by the Casey Foundation.
- Virtual Resource Kit: Relative Caregiving, by the Wisconsin Family Connections Center and Coalition for Children, Youth & Families, with applicability to caregivers nationally.
Access more information about Kinship Care from Casey Family Programs and the federal government’s Child Welfare Information Gateway.
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