Author: M. Elizabeth Coots
Planning Unit: Shelby County CES
Major Program: Grandparents and Grandchildren Together
Plan of Work: Developing Life Skills
Outcome: Initial Outcome
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 unreported, which would make the figure much higher. The main reason for these relatives to be in the situation of raising the child is due to the child’s biological parent using drugs and/or alcohol resulting in the inability to parent a child. Other reasons include death, incarceration, financial struggles, and unfit living environments. The relative raising the child is faced with many unique challenges for parenting a child who not biologically theirs. The purpose of the monthly support group is to aid in their ability and confidence to successfully parent given their situation. Surveys were distributed through the school system to caregivers identified by the Family Resource Coordinators to gather information about this population. From the results, the majority of the parents had been caring for one or more elementary-aged children for more than a year. Topics of concern from the survey included legal issues, dealing with child’s biological parents, helping child cope with understanding the situation/feelings, and self-help. Professionals in these areas were invited to lead support groups based on these findings, with each meeting having a specific topic.
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