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 needed by relatives to care for their new charge. Foster care has been widely studied, yet there are significant gaps to kinship care literature. A research survey was initiated to better understand Kentucky resident's thoughts, opinions, and familiarity with kinship care. Preliminary results with a subset of available data indicated that participants in this study hold favorable perceptions about kinship youth and caregivers. Findings suggest that participants typically view kinship as a favorable alternative to foster care and kinship providers should receive the same benefits as foster parents. Differences in perceptions and knowledge exist by educational level, among other variables, for respondents who knew someone providing kinship care. Greater educational attainment indicated greater levels of perceived and actual knowledge about kinship care. While participants tend to view kinship favorably, it appears that familiarity with kinship families play a role in one’s self-perception and knowledge of kinship issues. This study suggests a need for broad-based educational initiatives related to kinship that are sensitive to demographic differences and exposure to kinship families. This study provides empirical findings on which to base such efforts, and offers a number of pragmatic implications for adept practice and research related to kinship care. A summary of results from a complete analysis of the data will be written up and shared with FCS Extension Agents, along with a kinship toolkit. These resources should provide a foundation for agents who hold programs for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren and other type events involving populations pertinent to kinship care.