Author: Joan Bowling
Major Program: Grandparents and Grandchildren Together
In response to an overwhelming increase in the numbers of grandparents and relatives who are raising children in Kenton County the Cooperative Extension Service began a support group in 2004 to help those families. The support group has been the only one of its kind within the county that is not affiliated with a religious organization or specific social group. The monthly meeting serves as a place for caregivers to network with others in similar situations while also gaining knowled
Author: M. Elizabeth Coots
The Woodford County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences partnered with the Woodford County Public School Family Resource Coordinators to offer a monthly support group for relatives raising children, mostly grandparents raising grandchildren. According to Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, 6% of children throughout the Commonwealth are in the care of grandparents and other relatives – the highest in the nation. This statistic does not include those situations that are unre
Author: Joann Lianekhammy
Child welfare agencies have long relied on relatives to care for children unable to remain in the care of their parents. The state of Kentucky has diverted over 10,000 children from foster care through kinship care. These arrangements may be form a formal type of kinship care, involving state protective services, but also involves informal arrangements that are outside of government supervision. Informal arrangements outside of government supervision also means outside of government resources ne
Author: Diana Doggett
Grandparents/Relatives Stand in the GAPOver 70,000 or 7% of Kentucky children live in households headed by grandparents and/or relatives according to the AARP Foundation. Of those combined numbers, more than 30,000 children have no parent present in the home where they live. The underlying cause for this includes drug use by parents, imprisonment, illness or death of the parent. To address this issue, the Central Kentucky Grandparent Raising Relatives Coalition comprised of Fayette Co. Extension
Author: Karen Denniston
According to Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, 6% of children in the Commonwalth are being raised by a grandparent or other relative. This is one of the highest in the nation. The Bourbon County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences partnered with the Bourbon County and Paris Independent Schools Family Resource Coordinators to develop a monthly support meeting for relatives as parents (RAP). The interest in the development of this group was based on the increasing numbers of pho
