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Kinship Support Services Program helps families
Topics: Families, Family, family life, parenting, Social Services, help, counseling
Posted by rrephan Mon Jul 7, 2008 15:13:03 PDT
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July 3, 2008

 

Kinship Support Services Program offers services to families raising children of family members and friends.

 

Raising the child of a family member is not a new phenomenon.  What is new in this situation is the number of children being raised by their grandparents. According to the latest census report there are more than 9,000 families in Kern County that are headed by persons 60 and older that also have children under 18 living in the home.  The average person in this situation is a 60 year old single female.

 

Some of the children in this situation are among the nearly 3,000 children that are part of the Child Protective Services caseload and receive services through Department of Human Services programs. There are other children who are being raised by family and friends who are not in the system and who are on their own trying to cope with the problems of raising children who for some reason can no longer live with their parents. If the financial or emotional burden on these kinship families becomes too great, they have few choices other than placing the children with other relatives or putting the children in the foster care system.

 

The Kern County Department of Human Resources realized that one way to insure the stability of children who are not living with their parents is to provide support to family and friends who step up to fill the void. With services like counseling and support groups for children and adults, the transition will be less stressful. DHS applied for and received a grant from the State Department of Social Services to operate a Kinship Support Services Program which was approved this year. The program is operated by Haven Counseling Center in an outreach office at 316 H Street in Bakersfield. The program offers free services and will offer case management, phone support and referral, support groups, individual counseling for adults and children, training on issues related to foster parenting, transportation assistance, parenting classes, referral, tutoring and mentoring for children and a volunteer program.

 

There will be open house/ information meeting on the first two Thursdays each month from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Kinship Support Services Center, 316 H Street. On the second Thursday, there will  be a legal guardianship workshop provided by Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance attorney May Gordon, Esq. For more information call the Haven Counseling Center  office at 327-1951 or the main office at 327-4711.

 

The program will be actively seeking involvement with other community organizations, particularly churches to promote the program and to provide additional locations for trainings or support groups. For more information, contact program coordinator Rob Rephan at 327-1951 or 327-4711.

 

Here are some websites with good background  information on the subject.

 

American Bar Association Kinship Care Legal Research Center

http://www.abanet.org/child...

 

AARP Grandparents information center http://www.aarp.org/familie... 

AARP Webpage- Help for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren http://www.aarp.org/familie...

 

Child Welfare League- Kinship programs www.cwla.org/programs/kinship/kinshipaboutpage.htm

 

CA Department of Social Services- Kinship Care

http://www.childsworld.ca.g...

 

GrandFamilies of America

http://www.grandfamiliesofa...

 

 

Rob Rephan

Kinship Support Services Program Coordinator

316 H Street

327-1951

327-4711

rrephan@havencounselingcenter.org

 

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