Family Resource Centers: Supporting Grandfamilies and Kinship Navigation September 29, 2021

Child welfare systems also often place children with kin as “kinship foster parents” without licensing them or providing the children in their care anywhere near the same level of assistance as children in non-relative or non-kin foster care.

These families often need support making alternative caregiving plans and accessing services that may only be available to parents or those caregivers who have gone through a formal process to obtain a legal relationship to the children.

Kinship navigator programs help caregivers find and access services to meet their own needs and the needs of the children they are raising. The federal government provides a dedicated funding stream for kinship navigator programs, including under the Family First Prevention Services Act.