NJ Kinship Legal Guardianship Resource Clearing House
An Information Center for Kinship Care Families
The purpose of this handbook is to empower individuals with disabilities and their families and professional caregivers by providing information with which they can more effectively advocate for treatments, supports, services and the conditions that promote mental wellness. Individuals with the dual diagnoses of developmental disabilities and mental health disorders face multiple challenges in their daily lives.
Statement from Children’s Aid and Family Services: Children’s Aid and Family Services envisions a world where every person, of any color, origin, ability or faith, can reach their fullest potential. To achieve that goal, every person deserves to live free from fear, unimpeded by discrimination and unhindered by the threat and supreme indignity of violence. We stand in solidarity with all Americans who believe that a just and fair society is a fundamental right, not a privilege.
To all the people who comprise our organization – our children, young people and families, our staff and fellow community members, we want you to know that we stand together for racial equality and in the fight against injustice whenever and however it occurs. We believe everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and respect and that hate in all its forms must be unequivocally condemned.
For more than 120 years, we have served some of the most vulnerable members of our community and have helped them surmount the many barriers they face. We believe we must all do our part to make our communities the places we need them to be –equitable, respectful and opportunity-filled — places where children and families thrive. We, at Children’s Aid and Family Services, will continue the work of our mission: to strengthen families and empower individuals —children and adults alike — to reach their fullest potential.
Foster care and adoption in the age of COVID-19
As a parent—or aspiring parent—you’re already dealing with uncertainty every day. The last thing you needed was to have caseworkers become more difficult to reach or to have the routines you’ve worked so hard to establish unravel as schools close and providers become overwhelmed.
It’s an ever-changing landscape, but the reality is that wherever you are in your adoption journey, everything is most likely going to take longer as workers and resources are focused on keeping kids safe. Patience has always been an important quality in people who foster and adopt, and that is doubly true today.
https://blog.adoptuskids.org/foster-care-and-adoption-in-the-age-of-covid-19/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=SocialMedia
Why is it important for teachers to know about adoption
Adoption can be a wonderful outcome for children who are not able to
live with their birth parents. However, when adopted children join their
new family, they bring life experiences that might include maltreatment
and/or trauma. As a result, during the time leading into adoption and
after the adoption is finalized, these children might exhibit some unique
behaviors in the classroom. Therefore, it is important for educators to
understand the reasons underlying the behaviors versus solely focusing
on the behaviors.
September is Kinship Care Month, an important occasion for everyone to recognize and celebrate caregiving families who have stepped forward to provide the best opportunity for children to maintain family relationships and a sense of community and cultural heritage.
Check out CWLA’s two-volume special issue of the Child Welfare journal, Kinship Care and Child Welfare: New Directions for Policy and Practice, for policy-based and empirical research on kinship families.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are overrepresented in the homeless population. According to a growing body of research and study, a conservative estimate is
that one out of every five homeless youth (20 percent) is LGBT-identified. This is greatly disproportionate
to the estimated percentage of LGBT youth in the general population which is somewhere between 4 and 10 percent.1 Research indicates that each year, hundreds of thousands
of LGBT youth will experience homelessness. Most LGBT youth become homeless because of
family abuse, neglect, or conflict over their identity. Many homeless LGBT youth were kicked
out of their homes while others ran from foster and group homes because they were mistreated
or harassed.
The Rise of the Grandfamily
A D.C. housing development serves as a refuge for grandparents raising young children. Is it a model for the rest of the country?
It’s a few days after Christmas, and Akirah Carter is sitting in her living room, still wearing her Santa-and-reindeer-patterned pajamas and pointed elf slippers as she tinkers with her gifts: a PlayStation 4, a magic set, Harry Potter books. On the kitchen counter sits a plate of snickerdoodles the 10-year-old baked with her grandmother. She spent Christmas Eve at her great-uncle’s house in Bowie, Md., playing games with her family and singing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” on a karaoke machine. That night, after returning home, she left out a few cookies and a glass of milk for Santa.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/01/22/feature/inside-the-innovative-d-c-housing-development-for-grandfamilies/?fbclid=IwAR0fLHfX0t_zGWnrchuNakC_JxRLK-aEPwNygVrl9y3DZ3bTaGAePhs7zCQ&noredirect=on&utm_term=.61b8e719701b
➡ From Child Welfare Information Gateway
CT: Grandparents raising grandchildren face financial hardship
Middletown Press – January 18, 2019
For decades, grandparents have taken on the role of parent when needed – some for a second, third or fourth time. Many, like Melton, are thrust into the role without warning, often stepping in for their own children who struggle with drug addiction, incarceration, mental illness or other issues. Some are unprepared for the financial, emotional and health challenges that come along with parenting at an older age and advocates say with little notice, they are forced to face many obstacles with few supports and services tailored to their needs.
https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/Grandparents-raising-grandchildren-face-financial-13545648.php