In Whitley County, there are several Grandparents raising their grandchildren.  This brought about much discussion, planning and the start of a group of them that meet on a monthly basis, throughout the year with the exception of the month of August.  Several community partners get together to help make this possible, and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Assistant (EFNEP) of the Whitley County Extension Office, has been able to enroll clients and collaborate with the different partners throughout the year.  Once the new renovations and additions were made to the Whitley County Extension office, the Grandparents group started meeting at the facility on a monthly basis, averaging the regular 30 attendees monthly and up to 50+ from time to time.   

Each month there are educational classes conducted with various speakers, and the EFNEP Assistant does a Nutritional component with the clients.  Many times the grandparents of this particular group have stated that if it hadn’t been for their monthly meetings, raising their grandchildren would be more of a struggle than it is.  They have sort of, “for lack of better terminology,” become their own little “Family” that share problems and most of the time, some of the others have already had the problem and they share information with each other to try and resolve whatever the problem is with the raising of the children, no matter how minor or complicated the situation is.  

According to an article in the Courier Journal, Kentucky has the nation's highest rate of grandparents or other relatives raising children— with 9 percent of kids being raised by a relative compared with the national rate of 4 percent, according to Kentucky Youth Advocates.

About 96,000 Kentucky children are in the care of relatives other than their parents, most through informal arrangements but more than 15,000 placed by the state, according to the nonprofit organization, citing Census data.

Kentucky also has the nation's second-highest rate of parents who are incarcerated, meaning many of their children end up with relatives, said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. He said that places the state at the center of what he calls "an imperfect storm."

With the onset of COVID-19, the Grandparents group was forced to discontinue the “in-person” meetings.   By doing so, this was leaving them feeling isolated and very overwhelmed because not only were they taking on the responsibility of raising their grandchildren at a latter point in their life, they were also struggling to keep up with the technological methods that were being used for the children to continue school through the remote teaching, such as Google Classroom, and some through the Nontraditional Instruction (NTI) packets.  Now, they also were dealing with the fact that their grandchildren were at home almost all day at this point.  They were now not only Grandparents Raising their Grandchildren, but also filling the role of their teachers.  

The 30 grandparents said they missed having the educational classes, so the local partners met and started monthly packages for the Grandparents!  Each month the different collaborators met and contributed to the packets.  The EFNEP Assistant’s monthly contribution was in the form of providing the educational component from the Healthy Choices for Every Body along with a lesson related reinforcement item and COVID-19 handouts.  The Family Resource and Youth Service Coordinators would each put together different items as well.  The Grandparent packages were then taken to each of the grandparent’s homes, where the packages were very much appreciated.  This has been continued every month since April, and has already been planned to continue through December, at which time the partners will be meeting again to see if “in-person” classes can resume.  If the “in-person” classes can’t continue, then there is a planned schedule to continue the monthly packages through May with each partner of this endeavor contributing.  The feedback from the Grandparents group each month is how much they miss the actual interaction, but are unable to come in person mostly due to doctor’s recommendations and the grandchildren still at home.  With the distribution of Grandparent packages in September an additional survey is being conducted with the Grandparents at which time they are being approached to see if they would like and have the technical means to be able to possibly start classes back up through the Zoom platform.  This will then be tallied and discussed to decide if this would be feasible for this group.  We are hoping the proposed alternative way of reaching the grandparents will meet the needs of this successful and established group.