Each year, more than 53 million Americans provide a broad range of assistance to support the health, quality of life, and independence of an older adult or person with a disability. Another 2.1 million grandparents ¬— and an unknown number of other kinship caregivers — open their arms and homes each year to children who cannot remain with their parents. While each family is different, one characteristic they all share is the presence of a kin or grandparent caregiver who is providing support, love, and stability to vulnerable children—often outside the child welfare system.
A 2022 Report to Congress by the Advisory Council to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren found that many kin and grandparent caregivers lack access to basic supports and services. They struggle to house, feed, and clothe themselves and the children in their care. Almost half of the children living in “grandmother-only” households live in poverty. Black, African American, and Native American communities are over-represented in families led by kin and grandparent caregivers. For many families, the disproportionate challenges they face each day are only compounded as they navigate complex legal systems, a maze of disconnected financial and social services, and social stigma.
Today is Grandparents Day, and the month of September is National Kinship Care Month. As part of our celebration of both, and in recognition of the contributions of the nation’s grandparent and kin caregivers, ACL welcomes this guest blog post by Ana Beltran, director of the ACL-funded Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network,the nation’s first federally funded technical assistance center that helps government agencies and nonprofits in states, tribes, and territories work across boundaries to improve supports and services for families in which grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends are raising children.
Celebrating Grandparents — and Building Stronger Supports for Grandfamilies
By Ana Beltran, Director, Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network
Several years ago, I met a grandmother raising her grandson who had spent her entire retirement savings on his much-needed health care. She paid for everything out of pocket because he did not have insurance. No one at any of the agencies working with the family told her she could apply for Medicaid on his behalf. She thought only a parent could do that.
On Grandparents Day, I’m thinking about this grandmother’s dedication — and the sacrifices she made because she wasn’t told what services and supports were available.
This is not an isolated case.
Generations United,which operates the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network, advocates for and improves the lives of children, youth, and older adults through intergenerational collaboration, public policy, and programs. Over the past 25 years, we have seen countless ways caregivers get — or do not get — services, numerous variations on state laws governing legal relationships like adoption and guardianship, and an alarming lack of collaboration across agencies and organizations.
So, in 2021, when ACL called for proposals to create a technical assistance center for those who serve grandfamilies and kinship families, we knew what was most needed: an approach to help agencies and organizations work collaboratively to reach the families and leverage existing supports and services.
The mission of the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network is to help bridge and coordinate systems so regardless of which system grandparents and other kin first enter on their caregiving journey, they are connected to, and respectfully supported by, the others.
We began implementing our mission by hosting more than 50 virtual meetings with states, territories, and tribes to explore their strengths and challenges in supporting the families. Using information from those meetings, we conducted five virtual regional convenings and partnered with the National Indian Child Welfare Associationon a tribal convening.
These gatherings sparked collaboration and change across the country. One of the most gratifying yet simple accomplishments was connecting “Joan from aging” and “Sally from child welfare,” who worked on the same kinship issues but didn’t know each other. Connections like these foster collaboration that benefits kinship/grandfamilies.
Through the individual meetings and convenings, we learned of many promising programs around the country, which prompted us to create a process by which they and others could apply for designation as “exemplary” kinship programs. Our comprehensive overviews of 15 exemplary programs can help service providers learn from each other, replicate programs, and support more kinship/grandfamilies nationwide.
Collaboration and connection are recurring themes in everything we do. We are often asked — how do we find families and build trust? With our partners at ZERO to THREEand the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging,we formed a learning community of service providers to discuss solutions and elevate promising outreach practices. Another partner, USAging,is facilitating another learning community to address how area agencies on aging can start a program to tailor supports for kinship/grandfamilies. We also created a learning community for small, peer-led community nonprofits that do critical work but lack infrastructure.
We also respond to individual technical assistancerequests — more than 770 so far! Some just ask for policy or practice examples. Other requests are more complex. For example, last year, we provided eight months of ongoing assistance that resulted in a new nonprofit supporting grandfamilies in an underserved area of Alaska.
Our Bridging Systems for Kinship Families initiativeprovides even more in-depth support. For two years, we will be working to increase collaboration among kin-serving agencies in Idaho, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, and San Diego County. This work will result in comprehensive how-to guides that other jurisdictions can use.
These how-to guides will be housed in our searchable libraryof original resources designed to help agencies and organizations support kinship/grandfamilies. Among our resources, we created a toolkit to help organizations obtain fundingfor their kinship services and a tip sheet to help youth in these families apply for federal financial aidto attend college. As soon as ACF published a final rule allowing separate foster care licensing standards for kin,we created practical written resources, and offered webinars and technical assistance to encourage jurisdictions to implement this option. Ten months later, nine states and tribes are doing just that, leading to equitable support for children in foster care.
As someone raised in large part by my grandma, I consider it the privilege of a lifetime to lead the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network. The rest of our team also comes to this work with strong convictions to ensure that services follow children regardless of who raises them and to support grandparents and other caregivers throughout their caregiving journey. With the ongoing support of ACL, we look forward to continuing our work and extending cross-system collaboration around the country so that all kinship/grandfamilies can get the supports they need.
ICYMI: Dear Colleague Letter on Supporting Kinship Caregivers
In August 2024, the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) and ACL jointly issued a letter to our respective networksto encourage collaboration to improve support to grandparents raising grandchildren and other kinship caregivers. The letter outlines resources (including funding) available to help the aging and disability networks connect these caregivers to the services and supports they need — and to support a system-wide shift to a “kin-first” approach to child welfare.
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