By Norma Hatfield, kinship caregiver and president of the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky
As a grandmother who has navigated the child welfare system while caring for two of my grandchildren, I found that I was desperate for information; especially at the beginning when you get the kids. Oftentimes, the kids come with what they are wearing at the moment and you have nothing else. You are starting all over.
Even more so, I felt overwhelmed with lots of questions and desperately wanted to figure out how to navigate the situation. I remember thinking about the fact that I didn’t know what questions to ask and who to ask them to; or where to go to get the information. Everything felt complicated and information was sparse.
Over the years as a kinship caregiver and advocate, I’ve found that while we all step up to care for the kids, the needs vary from person to person, or location to location. More populated areas may have more assistance options than more rural areas. Our goal though is the same – do our best to love the kids and ensure they have a safe and loving home. We want to meet the basic needs of the kids and family.
That’s why I’m so excited to share information about a new project which is underway by Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) and the Casey Family Programs (CFP), which is a kinship caregiver resource listing database. This project is to gather as much information about needed resources in every county and make that information available to all on the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky’s website.
The other aspect of this project is to survey kinship and fictive kin caregivers, as well as community providers, and gather as much information as possible regarding not only needs in local areas, but barriers and information about what is working and not working regarding the Department of Community Based Services (DCBS) support.
We plan to come to all nine DCBS regions and hear from you during a listening and share session. We listen to what you have to say about support services and needs and we share what information and resources we have collected at that time and how to access the resource tool. These events are for nonprofits and other organizational service providers, and relative/fictive kin caregivers – everyone is welcome.
You can help us help families and other support organizations by:
- Filling out the Kinship Family Resource Identification Survey to help raise awareness of the unique needs and challenges faced by kinship caregivers
- Sharing this post and the survey flyer below with others in your area
- Watching for updates with dates and times for our listening and share sessions at kinshipky.org/events
We hope to be in your area soon. I hope to personally see you as well.
I’m new to kinship care- I’m raising my 4 year old granddaughter- her mom is terminal and will pass away the next few days. I need resources. How to continue her Medicaid- her WIC- her 3’c help with childcare. I don’t k ow how to navigate this.