Grandparents/Relatives Stand in the GAP

Over 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, Lex. Urban Co. Gov., Fayette Co. Schools, Healthcare Agencies, BG ADD District, and the Lexington Bar Association plans and implements programming to aid this population. This includes 10 conference workshops and five monthly support group meetings throughout the year that reaches 400+ relatives from 21 counties.  Family practice attorneys and Benefits representatives provided 108 hours of free counseling valued at over $10,000. Community agency support equaled $4,600. The 16^th March Conference FCS Extension focused on trauma and the impacts on children. Agent input includes program planning, marketing, registration and evaluation, a support group facilitator, SNAP-Ed nutrition education and collaboration with other family-service organizations to provide seamless support. Demographics were: 50+ years-87%; female-87%; white-84%; African American-13%; American Indian-2%; children ages range from 1 month-19 years; divorced, widowed or single-29%; and retired or unemployed-72%.  FCS Extension conducts a monthly evening community support group in conjunction with SNAP Ed for this population.  

Impact from post surveys (80% return): 83% significantly increased knowledge and parenting best practices for traumatized children; 88% can recognize drug and alcohol effects on children; 70% increased knowledge of legal process; 67% extended skill set for nutritional care; 31% improved response techniques for autistic child. 63% advocated for relative caregivers by letters to policymakers and at support group meetings; 123 participates attended a Resource and Benefit consultation; 39% made use of resources not known were available; 48% practiced positive caregiving methods; 37% worked toward accomplishing set goals; and 45% could identify and advocated for a legislative or regulatory change in the past year that influenced provision of care (Senate Bill 31 & House Bill 230). Actions taken as a result of this programming: “Became encouraged to adopt my granddaughters!”; “Got our financial and life papers in order”; “Informed as to how to contact Senator for Bill 1, Kinship Care vs K-Tap”; “Received SS benefits for adopted grandchildren”; “Informed others about the new method of making, hiding and distributing marijuana”; “Worked with counselor, got ADHD assessment. Worked close with school/school counselor”; “Much better at setting limits and talking with granddaughter”; “Used information from tax attorney to reduce federal tax”; and “The support group meetings made me realize I am not alone and what an impact this has on grandparents.”