In September, the nation celebrates grandparents. Grandparents can play several roles in a child’s life, including role model, friend, and caregiver. They do extraordinary things like providing child care as respite for parents and making children feel special in order to support their families. And many grandparents across Kentucky and the nation are doing something grand everyday by stepping up to help raise their grandchildren when the child’s parents are unable. In Kentucky, an estimated [...]

“So many people don’t know how to recognize abuse that isn’t physical.” “Help kids both within and outside of ‘the system’ to learn healthy methods to cope with their abuse.” “Abolish the rumors others outside of the foster care system start that automatically assume those within the system are ‘bad kids.’  Get kids out in the community doing good things.  Show people the good.” “Work on removing the moratorium and get the financial assistance up [...]

Originally posted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation on their blog. It’s hard enough for any young person to grapple with the myriad changes and challenges that come with growing up. But teens in foster care face seemingly endless barriers to everyday experiences that their peers who aren’t in foster care often take for granted. Youth in foster care often cannot attend a sleepover unless the friend’s family undergoes a background check. They cannot play [...]