This discussion guide aims to help those who have viewed the five-part video training series, “Engaging Kinship Caregivers: Managing Risk Factors in Kinship Care.” It is intended to help these viewers expand their learning through group exercises and discussion, and practice the strategies learned through the series. The guide is designed for use with small groups led by program directors, supervisors, and trainers. Individuals can also apply the questions and prompts, either on their own or with a colleague, to deepen their understanding of the concepts.

As the number of kinship caregivers increases for children in foster care and more child welfare jurisdictions adopt a “kin first” placement practice, the need to provide specialized support for relatives is becoming even more crucial. However, with the added complexity of child welfare system involvement, financials stress, and multigenerational loyalty binds, these families deserve assistance from professionals trained to meet their unique needs. The Annie E. Casey Foundation developed and sponsored this five-part set of training modules to strengthen the skills of child welfare professionals in supporting families to improve outcomes for children. The modules are led by Dr. Joseph Crumbley, an internationally renowned kinship trainer and consultant.

This fact sheet describes how grandfamilies and kinship families have unique strengths and face unique challenges. It addresses key questions regarding these types of families, including how many children live in them; what available data show about them; what research shows about their strengths; and what challenges these families face, such as legal, financial (with a table of national averages comparing financial supports for one child, two children, and three children); physical and mental health; housing; and education issues.

Sometimes grandparents, other relatives, or family friends care for children when their parents are unable to care for them. This arrangement, known as kinship care, can occur with or without the involvement of a child welfare agency, depending on the situation. This Children’s Bureau factsheet is designed to help kin caregivers — including grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, and other relatives as well as family friends caring for children — work effectively with the child welfare system. Financial resources to support kinship caregivers, including TANF, are referenced in this fact sheet. At the end of the fact sheet, there are links to resources covering information on the child welfare system and on kinship care.

This listing includes kinship care contacts and website links to kinship care programs and services offered by State child welfare departments, subcontracted private nonprofit agencies, and some Tribes in applicable States and the District of Columbia.

This brief, prepared by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and Generations United, identifies kinship practice examples to help jurisdictions change policy and practice to promote kin placement and permanency. The brief is organized into seven main topics: identification, notification, and engagement of kin; placement with kin; financial assistance for kin, including TANF and Title IV-E funding; emergency licensing procedures; kin-specific licensing practices; permanency with kin; and general kin support.

In May and June of 2022, the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network (a national technical assistance center funded by the Administration for Community Living) hosted five virtual half-day regional convenings. Additionally, one of the Network’s key national partners, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, hosted a virtual half-day tribal convening. These six convenings brought together leaders from various systems within states, tribes, and territories to address challenges and explore promising practices in serving kinship/grandfamilies. They engaged individuals with lived experience, leaders and professionals in kinship navigator programs as well as community- and faith-based organizations. Additionally, the convenings included representatives of the following government systems: Aging, Child Welfare, Disability, Education, Housing, Medicaid/Medicare, Nutrition, and TANF.

Increasingly, government and nonprofit leaders are recognizing the value of engaging individuals with lived experience when creating and enhancing programs and services. This resource offers tips for engaging with caregivers, youth, and parents with lived experience in kinship/grandfamilies so that they can meaningfully contribute to programs and services intended for them. The term “kinship/grandfamilies” refers to all families in which grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends are raising children whose parents are unable to do so.

This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network webinar facilitated by Dr. Joseph Crumbley offered participants shared/co-parenting strategies that provide well-being, safety, and stability for children in kinship families. (The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network is a national technical assistance center funded by the Administration for Community Living). The webinar provided guidance on how to identify the strengths and benefits of shared parenting for the child, caregivers, and birth parents in kinship families; formulate prerequisites and criteria for assessing whether or not shared/co-parenting is feasible and in the best interest of the child and kinship family; develop strategies to elicit buy-in from caregivers and birth parents to engage in shared/co-parenting; identify barriers and approaches to minimize the challenges of shared parenting; and provide caregivers with dialogues, guidelines, and roles for birth parents that promote and maintain shared/co-parenting.

Generations United produced a set of three tip sheets as quick reference tools for practitioners and advocates who are working with grandfamilies and kinship families from traditionally underserved groups. Based on toolkits, these tip sheets are tailored for addressing the needs of children from American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN), Latino, and African American populations. They help practitioners provide services in a way that is culturally sensitive and effective and also serve as guides for staff orientation/training to work in these communities.