Were you or someone you know raised by grandparents, other extended family, or a family friend? Are you familiar with an adult who took a child into their home? Do you know or identify with someone who has given care at home, to a person with a life limiting illness or debility?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then you understand what kinship care is – loved ones caring for a child or elderly person when the parents, or they themselves, are unable to do so.
“The typical family caregiver is a 49-year old woman caring for her widowed 70 year old mother. She is married and employed. Approximately 66% of family caregivers are women. More than 37% have children or grandchildren under 18 years of age living with them. 1.4 million Children ages 8 to 18 provide care for an adult relative; 72% are caring for a parent or grandparent; and 64% live in the same house as their care recipients.”
— National Alliance for Caregiving
The number of children being raised by extended family is growing 6 times faster than the general population. In the High Country and many other areas of the United States, the opioid crisis, along with many other contributing factors has created a void of forever homes available to children.
Kinship Care keeps children out of foster care and group homes. Remaining with families that love them makes all the difference in their tomorrow. Studies have proven that children raised by families have better long term outcomes. They also have different challenges than kids in traditional home settings.
Many times children in kinship homes are faced with trauma from abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Kinship caregivers take on a life altering task themselves, as many of them are older and had not planned on raising more children.
“More than 53 million people (or 1 in 5 Americans) provide care for a chronically ill, disabled, or aged family member or friend during any one given year and spend an average of 23.7 hours per week providing direct care for their loved one.”
— AARP 2020 Report on Caregiving in the U.S.
Many kinship families do not understand the legal system or services available to them from the community and government. Sometimes they receive conflicting or inaccurate messages and information about the help that is available to them. Children raised by family adjust much better than children raised in the foster care system, these families need your help!
Ironically the number of loved ones caring for a person with debility or life-limiting illness is also on the rise.