Kinship Care: The Quiet Backbone of Family Preservation

Sometimes keeping a family together means someone else in the family steps forward. 

A grandmother opens her home to her grandchildren. An aunt rearranges her work schedule. An older sibling takes on new responsibilities. A close family friend who has always felt like family becomes the steady person a child needs. 

Taking on the care of a child can change everyday life quickly. There are school forms to sign, doctor appointments to schedule, bedrooms to rearrange, benefits to figure out, and plenty of questions about what comes next. 

This is kinship care. It helps children stay connected to family and other important relationships during a time of change. 

Here in the North Country, the Family Resource Center’s Kinship Navigation program offers kinship care support as caregivers find their footing in a new role. 

When Family Steps In 

Kinship caregivers may be grandparents, aunts and uncles, adult siblings, other close relatives, or close family friends who already have an important relationship with the child. At the Family Resource Center, Kinship Navigation supports relatives and family-like caregivers raising children up to age 18 without the child’s biological parents. Families may be navigating a short-term placement, DCYF involvement, guardianship, foster care, adoption, or a longer-term caregiving arrangement.  

Families come to kinship care in many different ways. Sometimes a parent is going through a difficult season and isn’t able to provide day-to-day care for their child. Sometimes DCYF is involved. Every family’s circumstances are different. 

Having someone the child already knows and trusts step in can help preserve important family connections while everyone adjusts to what’s happening. 

Keeping Children Connected 

When a child can’t safely remain at home, and DCYF becomes involved, relatives may be considered as caregivers. Keeping children connected to family, siblings, school, community, and other important relationships can help them find a safe, stable place to stay. 

For a child going through a major change, those familiar pieces can matter. They may still attend the same school, see people they know, celebrate family traditions, or stay connected with siblings and relatives they love. 

Some kinship caregivers also become legal guardians. Guardianship can give a caregiver the authority they need to make decisions for a child, including enrolling them in school or consenting to medical care. It doesn’t necessarily mean the arrangement will be permanent. 

Stepping Up Can Bring a Lot of Questions 

Taking care of a child you love doesn’t automatically come with a handbook. There may be a new school system to learn, benefits to figure out, court or DCYF requirements to understand, medical care to coordinate, childcare to arrange, and changes to the household budget. 

And there can be a lot of feelings mixed in with all of that. 

Caregivers may be sorting through their own feelings while caring deeply for the child and navigating relationships with the child’s parents. 

That’s a lot for one family to sort through. 

They shouldn’t have to know all the answers on day one. 

That’s Where a Kinship Navigator Can Help 

A Kinship Navigator can be someone to help you sort through those questions. 

Maybe you need help understanding a benefit or figuring out where to start with guardianship. Maybe you’re looking for a community resource, trying to navigate a system, or simply need to talk with someone who understands kinship care. Our Navigators can help with those next steps. 

There’s also space to connect with other caregivers who understand some of what you’re navigating.

The Family Resource Center offers a Caregiver Support Group, where relatives raising children can connect, share experiences, and find support. Parenting A Second Time Around (PASTA) also offers support specifically for grandparents and other relatives raising children, with opportunities to talk about parenting, common challenges, and available resources.  

Sometimes it helps to have someone figure out the next phone call or form with you. 

Sometimes you need someone who understands that loving a child and feeling overwhelmed can exist in the same day. 

There’s room for both. 

Keeping the Child at the Center 

Family relationships can feel especially complicated during a kinship care transition. 

A caregiver may be working hard to create stability while carrying strong feelings about what happened before the child came into their care. 

Our Kinship Navigators are trained to make room for those feelings while keeping the child’s needs at the center. 

“Children should never have to choose between the adults they love.”  

A child can love their caregiver and still love, miss, or worry about their parent. Making room for all those relationships can help children feel safe loving the people who matter to them. 

Supporting the People Who Keep Families Connected 

Kinship caregivers don’t always think of themselves as caregivers. 

They might simply say, “Of course I took them. They’re family.” 

Behind that simple answer can be a lot of love, adjustment, responsibility, and change. 

September is Kinship Month, and we’re grateful for the grandparents, relatives, and family-like caregivers across the North Country who are showing up for children and helping families stay connected. 

If you’re raising a relative’s child, you don’t have to know how to navigate everything on your own. Our Kinship Navigation team can help with questions about guardianship, benefits, DCYF, community resources, parenting support, and whatever next step you’re trying to figure out. 

We’re here when you need us.