Partnering With Relatives for Kinship Care

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Why is kinship care important, and what are some of the challenges? Our guests are Gregory Jones, a granddad raising five grandkids from birth to now ranging in age from 9 to 12; Ana Beltran, an attorney, and director of the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network: A National Technical Assistance Center; and Erica Burgess, a social worker with over 25 years of experience in child welfare, specializing in kinship care.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How common is kinship care throughout the US—both formal (child welfare involved) and informal?
• Grandparents raising grandkids or aunts and uncles raising nephews and nieces is often complicated and comes with a mix of challenges and blessings.
• What are some of the blessings?
• What are some of the challenges? 
• Managing the relationship between the caregiver and the parents.
  • What are some common challenges in this relationship?
  • What are some common boundaries that need to be set in kinship care?
• Lack of preparation and training for raising kids who have experienced trauma, neglect, prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs, etc.
• Lack of financial support.
• How can social workers and child welfare professionals make sure that kinship caregivers get the full extent of financial support?
• Access to resources. What are some typical resources that kinship caregivers should ask about and that child welfare agencies should consider providing?
• We see a significant variance between jurisdictions in social workers and child welfare professionals in the embrace of placing children with relatives.
  • Why are some social workers hesitant to place kids with relatives?
  • From an ethical perspective, why must social workers open their minds to looking for kin first when removing a child from their parents?
• Placing children with kin rather than the state taking custody. (Hidden foster care/kinship diversion)
  • Legal considerations
  • Ethical considerations with the hidden foster.

Great resources:

• Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network: A National Technical Assistance Center 
• Grandfacts: State Fact Sheets for Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children
• NCKinshipFamilies.org - Legal Permanency Options for NC Kinship Families website
• Free Kinship Legal Clinic 
• Kinship Caregivers and the Child Welfare System
  • https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f-kinshi/
• Online Kinship Support Group - email [email protected]

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