Across
the country, more than six million children -- approximately
1 in 12 children -- are living in households headed by grandparents
or other relatives. The District of Columbia has
more than 113,000 children living in households headed by grandparents
or other relatives. In many of these households, grandparents
and other relatives are the primary caregivers (“kinship caregivers”)
for children whose parents cannot or will not care for them
due to substance abuse, illness and death, abuse and neglect,
economic hardship, incarceration, divorce, domestic violence,
and other family and community crises.
A Look
at the Numbers: Kinship Care in Pennsylvania
The data below
show the numbers of grandparents who are living in households
with at least one grandchild under the age of 18, as well
as the numbers of grandparents who are the primary caregivers
for these grandchildren. These numbers were reported by the
2000 U.S. Census and are available for every place (as defined
by the U.S. Census Bureau) in the country, including cities,
towns, villages, and boroughs, on the U.S. Census website.
| |
Grandparents
Living in Households with One or More Own Grandchildren
Under 18 |
Grandparents
Responsible for Meeting the Basic Needs of Grandchildren |
| Location |
# |
# |
| United
States |
5,771,671 |
2,426,730 |
| Pennsylvania |
204,909 |
80,423 |
| Philadelphia
city |
51,159 |
21,123 |
| Pittsburgh
city |
5,999 |
2,699 |
| Harrisburg
city |
1,565 |
882 |
*These data
are taken from the U.S. Census Bureau Table DP-2. Profile
Selected Social Characteristics: 2000.
Kinship
Care Initiatives in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania,
public and private agencies and grassroots coalitions of grandparents
and other relative caregivers have begun working together
to expand the services available to kinship caregivers who
are caring for children outside of the foster care system.
Several of
the major kinship care programs and supports are listed below.
Additional support groups can be found through the AARP
Grandparent Information Center Database. Call 1-800-424-3410,
e-mail information requests to gic@aarp.org, or search
AARP’s online kinship care support group database at http://www.aarp.org/grandparents/searchsupport/.
Additional
state and national kinship care resources and supports
are available on the Generations United website at http://www.gu.org,
and GrandsPlace at http://www.grandsplace.org and
Grandparent Again at http://www.grandparentagain.com,
two websites coordinated by grandparents raising grandchildren.
Policy
Advocacy for Kinship Care Families: The Philadelphia Task
Force on Kinship Care advocates for new policies, laws, and
services that support kinship care families on a local, state,
and national level. It was established in March 1995
to implement the recommendations generated by a national conference
in November 1993, Kinship Care: Across Generations... Across
Systems. Task Force membership is drawn from the family court,
the county agencies, kinship foster care provider agencies,
grassroots support groups, senior agencies, a youth advocacy
agency, child advocates, political staffs of the school district,
and kinship caregivers. The Task Force also raises awareness
and understanding of kinship care. Contact: Tracey Thomasey
at (215) 925-1913 extension #157 or tracey@advokid.org,
or Rebecca Baehr at (215) 925-1913 extension #158 or rebeccab@advokid.org.
Comprehensive
Support for Philadelphia Kinship Care Families:
Grand Central Kinship Care Resource Center is Philadelphia's
first and only Kinship Care Resource Center, offering a variety
of services and supports for kinship care families in the
Philadelphia area. Such services include providing information
and referrals, family support services, educational seminars,
and support groups. Grand Central provides on-site technical
assistance to the staff of Philadelphia’s nineteen community-based
Family Center sites. The Center’s staff facilitates
needs assessments to determine the general demographic profile
of kinship caregivers in targeted family centers. This
helps the sites articulate their needs, and bridge the information
gaps of the workers around such needs. The Center’s bilingual
liaison accommodates the language diversity in the program
and conducts special outreach to the Latino community of the
Family Center. Contact: Sandy Cross, Executive Director, at
(215) 557-1554 or campbelljackson11@msn.com.
The website is http://www.grandcentralinc.org.
Network
of Kinship Care Support Groups: Below is a list of support
groups with which the Grand Central Kinship Care Resource
Center collaborates in Philadelphia:
Super Grandparents
'93
Abbotsford Avenue
3105 J Berkeley Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Contact: Patricia Sample (215)
849-8598
Super Grandparents
'93
Abbotsford Avenue
3110 C Abbotsford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Contact: Wihelmina Green at
(215) 848-4352
Germantown
Family Center Kinship Support
Pickett Middle School
Wayne & Chelten Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19144
Contact: (215) 951-4188
Grands As
Parents (GAPs)
Church of the Advocate
2121 Gratz Street
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Contact: Eileen Brown at (215)
236-5848
Raising Others'
Children
1815 S. 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19145
Contact: Elizabeth Burns at
(215) 271-0053
Grandmother's
Project
2313 W. Oxford Street
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Contact: DuJuan Scott or Ruby
Williams at
(215) 765-8480
Community Family Center of
Southwest Philadelphia
Kinship Care Support Group
Mitchell Elementary School
56th & Kingsessing Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Contact: Linda Gordon at (215)
727-4333
Relatives
As Parents Program (RAPP)
Women's Christian Alliance
Community Center
1722 -42 Cecil B. Moore Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Contact: Regina Glass at (215)
236-9911
Kinship Care
and Seniors Network (KSCN)
Greater Harrison Community
Center
1235 N. 10th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Contact: Christina Boyd at
(215) 765-5348
Grand Talks
Catholic Social Services
Northeast Family Service Center
7430 Jackson Street
Philadelphia, PA 19136
Contact: Blanche Toole-White
at (215) 624-5920
Grandparents
As Parents
Senior Wheels East - Lehigh
Center
1701 Lehigh Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19123
Contact: Rose Marie Ritter
at (215) 787-2944
Casework
Services and On-Call Support for Kinship Care Families:
Children's Choice, Inc. provides community-based, specialized
services to children and families in the Philadelphia area.
The agency's Kinship Care Program provides intensive casework
services, emergency on-call support, and extensive training
opportunities to kinship caregivers. Children's Choice works
in cooperation with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services.
Contact: Carolyn Eberwein, CEO, at (610) 521-6270 or 1-800-LA-CHILD
or cacchichoice@aol.com.
Community
Family Centers: The Office of Community Family Centers
helps prevent child abuse and neglect and fosters family stability
through exemplary neighborhood programs that target the most
vulnerable children and families, including kinship care families.
Philadelphia's 19 Family Centers provide one-stop access to
a range of social services. Each Family Center offers six
core services designed to help strengthen the family's capacity
to reach the goals that have been set for their children and
community. These include case management, information,
referral and linkage, parenting education, after-school programs,
summer programs, and positive youth development activities.
Contact: Ellen Walker, Director of the Office of Community
Family Centers, at (215) 683-4DHS or (215) 683-5700 or ellen.walker@phila.gov.
Kinship
Care Advice and Referral: KINCAN (Kinship Caregiver Assistance
Network) provides advocacy, legal representation, advice,
information, and referral services for kinship caregivers
60 years of age and older in Philadelphia. KINCAN also offers
community education and training for grandparents and other
relatives who are raising their kin. Contact: Karen C. Buck,
Executive Director, at (215) 238-6361 or info@scjudicare.org.
The website is http://www.scjudicare.org.
Kinship
Care Intergenerational Studies Program: The Grandkin Raising
GrandKids Program is an intergenerational studies program
at the University of Pittsburgh serving kinship care families
in the Pittsburgh area. The program offers grandparent
support groups, a warm-line, at (412)-641-4546 or 1-800-641-4546
(outside Allegheny County), that offers advice and support,
and respite care in partnership with A Second Chance, Inc.,
the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of
Children, Youth & Families, the Area Agency on Aging,
Family Resources, Inc., and Vintage, Inc. Contact: David Fetterman,
Project Director, at (412) 648-7150 or djfett@pitt.edu.
After-School
Programs for Children in Kinship Care: The Center for
Intergenerational Learning at Temple University-Grandma's
Kids provides after-school services to children in Philadelphia
who are in out-of-home placements (kinship, foster care, group
homes, etc.). The primary goal of Grandma's Kids is to enhance
the capacity of children to resist substance abuse and violence,
while strengthening the family system and improving the ability
of school personnel to address the needs of this very special
population. The primary population is elementary school children,
ages 7 to 12. The programs are housed in the schools where
Family Centers have offices. The programs offer tutorial
assistance, life skills, and educational enhancement lessons,
cultural and recreational activities, group counseling, and
caregiver assistance support. Contact: Sannah Ragsdale,
Project Coordinator, at (215) 204-3105 or sannah.ragsdale@temple.edu.
Support
for Kinship Caregivers: Pinebrook Services for Children
and Youth provides kinship care services for families in the
Lehigh Valley. The program offers family gatherings,
a weekly newsletter, and educational training sessions for
the caregivers. Contact: Mindy Watson, Program
Director, at (610) 432-3919.
A Public-Private
Partnership for Kinship Care Families: A Second Chance
Inc. (ASCI) is a non-profit corporation that works in cooperation
with the office of Allegheny County Children, Youth &
Families to provide a full range of kinship foster care, adoptive,
and support services to Allegheny County children. Some of
the agency's services include, but are not limited to EPSDT
(medical screening), intensive kinship care training, crisis
intervention, information and referral services, continuity
of services, counseling and other support services. ASCI offers
support group sessions, seminars and activities for youth,
kinship foster parents, and birth families. The agency also
operates a clothing bank. ASCI was the first program in the
state to exclusively offer such services to kinship families
through a private, not-for-profit entity. Contact: James Freeman,
Program Director, at (412) 665-2300 or jamesf@asecondchance-kinship.com.
The website is http://www.asecondchance-kinship.com.
Kinship
Care and Pennsylvania’s Foster Care System
Sometimes
children in the care of the states are placed in foster care
with grandparents or other relatives. In Pennsylvania,
the Department of Public Welfare, Office of Children, Youth,
and Families reports:
Number
of children in kinship foster placements: As of September
2000, there were 21,191 children in out-of-home placements.
Of these children, 3,556 children (16.8%) were placed with
kin.
Preference
for kinship placements: State policy requires that kin
be considered first when an out-of-home placement is sought
for a child under the Department’s care.
Licensing
for kinship foster parents: There is no separate approval
policy for kinship foster parents. Kin have to meet
the same approval standards and receive the same foster care
payment rate as non-kin foster parents in their county.
Subsidized
Permanent Legal Custodianship: In addition to foster care
payments and other benefits available to kin raising children
in the foster care system, some states also have subsidized
guardianship programs. Pennsylvania has established the Subsidized
Permanent Legal Custodianship (SPLC) Program to provide financial
assistance to eligible children living with family members
and other kin who obtain permanent custody of them from Pennsylvania’s
foster care system. Adoption and reunification with
the parents must be ruled out before children are eligible
for the program. Contact: Cynthia Manuel, Fiscal Policy and
Support Unit, Office of Children, Youth and Families, at (717)
783-7372 or cmanuel@state.pa.us.
State foster
care contact: Questions about kin foster care should be
directed to Cathy Utz, Director of Program Policy Unit, Office
of Children, Youth and Families at (717) 705-2912 or cutz@state.pa.us.
Training
and support for kin foster parents: Anyone seeking to
become a foster parent, including kinship caregivers, must
participate annually in six hours of agency approved training.
Contact: Cathy Utz, Director of Program Policy Unit,
Office of Children, Youth and Families, at (717) 705-2912
or cutz@state.pa.us.
Other Supports
for Pennsylvania Kinship Care Families
Children raised
by kinship caregivers are often eligible for a range of state
and federal programs. In most cases, kinship caregivers may
apply for these programs on a child’s behalf even though they
are not the child’s parents or legal guardians. Some
examples of these programs include:
Cash assistance:
Cash assistance may be available to children and their grandparents
and other relative caregivers through the Pennsylvania Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program. Kinship
care families may also be eligible for food stamps to help
meet their children’s food and nutrition needs. For
more information about these programs, call the Welfare Helpline
at 1-800-692-7462 or log on to http://www.dpw.state.pa.us.
Health
insurance: Grandparents and other relative caregivers
may apply for free or low-cost health insurance on behalf
of the children they are raising through the Pennsylvania
Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs.
In some cases, caregivers may also be eligible for free health
coverage under Medicaid. For more information about
how to apply for Medicaid, call 1-717-787-1870 or log on to
http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/oim/oimappforms.asp.
For more information about CHIP, call 1-800-986-KIDS or log
on to http://www.insurance.state.pa.us/html/chip.html.
State Laws
and Policies
Sometimes
kinship caregivers find it difficult to obtain services their
children need, such as medical care or education. In addition
to the state’s child guardianship and custody laws, the following
laws may be helpful to kinship caregivers1:
Medical
Consent (11 PA Cons. Stat. §§ 2511-2513): This
law allows a child’s legal guardian/custodian to permit a
relative or family friend to consent to medical, surgical,
dental, developmental, mental health or other treatment for
the child.
Standby
Guardianship (23 PA Cons. Stat. §§ 5601-5612):
This law allows a parent or legal guardian to authorize
a co-guardian to assume the care of the person or property
for a child upon the parent’s incapacity, debilitation, or
consent. A custodial parent or legal guardian may designate
a standby guardian by means of written consent unless the
child has another parent or adoptive parent: (1) whose parental
rights have NOT been terminated or relinquished; (2) whose
whereabouts are known; and (3) who is willing and able to
carry out the day-to-day child-care decisions concerning the
child.
