According to the 2019 census data, there are an estimated 7 million children in America living with their grandparents, and another 2 million living with “other relative”.  In Kentucky, roughly one in ten children are being raised by their grandparents, and one in every 12 children (81,000) live in kinship care. As the number of grandchildren who rely on grandparents for security increases, the demands for financial and emotional security seem to be taking a toll on everyone involved. Using data from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health, it was discovered those raising grandchildren were more likely to have physical and mental health problems, to be poorer than average, and have less education than the average adult. In addition, the grandchildren were more apt to have behavioral issues concerning anxiety and aggression. Supporting these families is necessary for the overall betterment of the state and is therefore a main mission of the Family and Consumer Science Extension Department (FCS) at the University of Kentucky.

As a part of this mission, FCS Parenting and Child Development Specialist Dr. David Weisenhorn, trained 78 FCS county agents since April 2021 with the Parenting A Second Time Around (PASTA) curriculum developed by Cornell University. PASTA is designed for people who wish to lead workshops or educational sessions for grandparents or relatives who are in a parenting role with their related grandchildren, regardless of legal custody. The curriculum is structured to provide eight two-hour sessions of content covering topics including child development, family formation and re-formation, discipline, legal concerns, grandparent and grandchild rights, and how to deal with challenges that come with living with teenagers.  The curriculum includes activities, information sheets, and supplemental materials to guide the agents in sharing beneficial resources and content that will help empower and equip the families in their counties.

All 78 agents who received the training reported the training as extremely beneficial. Similarly, 100% of feedback expressed a desire to continue or begin a PASTA support group in their county.  According to Kentucky Kinship Families Coalition president, Norma Hatfield, we now have trained facilitators in 17 counties that did not have a current grandparent support group. Through a partnership with Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky (PCAK), ten counties (Boone, Bourbon, Butler, Fulton, Jessamine, Leslie, Marshall, Scott, Spencer, and Woodford) were each awarded a $1,000 to complete a project during a Growing Better Together with Grandparents Event this September during Grandparent Month.  Each county’s PASTA group will get to choose to plant trees, plant bulbs, build library boxes, or a combination of these things to build community among kinship families and make Kentucky strong.