Grandparents Matter:

The Role of Kinship Carein Home Visiting

6th Annual Home Visiting  SummitNovember 16. 2016

Meet Some Grandparents

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren:

The Facts

Grandfamilies

David Willis (HRSA)Clare Anderson (Chapin Hall) 

Tashira Halyard (Center for the Study of Social Policy)Janice Gruendel (Institute for Child Success)

Meet the Panel

Grandparents Matter: Understanding and Responding to the Role of Kinship Care in Home Visiting

National Home Visiting SummitWednesday, Nov 16, 2016 1-2:15pm

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David W. Willis, MD, FAAPDirector, Division Home Visiting and Early Childhood SystemsMaternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA

• Grandparents raising grandchildren• The clinical and home visiting experiences

• Child health practice• Current EB home visiting experiences

• Reflections on 3Gen Home Visiting• Ageism• Relational health promotion• “Grandfamilies” movement • Individualism and young children• Evolutionary developmental systems of families and communities

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Grandparents Raising Grandparents: The Facts

7 Millions grandparents raising grandchildren in their homes2.7 million of those grandparents are the only adults, full time parents       

1.7 grandmothers parenting alone – single parenting~580,000 homes had incomes below poverty  (<33K/yr.)

Why? • Divorce, unemployment, health problems, drugs and alcohol abuse, mental disorders or jail

Helping their grandchildren• To decrease exposure to trauma, stress and neglect• To protect their grandchildren, to keep them out of foster care, and protect them from running away

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ProjectPATCH:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS6oMb6t6DY

Co‐resident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren

• 2012 Census data (reported in 2014)• About 3% of all households contain both grandparents and grandchildren.   

• More than 60% of these households are maintained by a grandparent

• About 2.7 Million grandparents were “grandparent caregivers”• About 10% of all children live with a grandparent• Since 2007, about 1/3rd of children who live with a grandparent also have two parents present

• Grandparents who live with grandchildren are younger, less educated and more likely to be divorced or widowed t

• Co‐resident grandparents are also more likely to be in poverty and more likely to be unable to work due to illness or disability

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85

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The clinical and home visiting experiences

• Clinical experience• “Parenting grandchildren is different than parenting my own”

• Current EB home visiting experiences

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Reflections on 3 Gen home visiting

Reflections on 3 Gen home visiting

• Promoting developmental and relational health

• Grandfamilies http://www.grandfamiliesofamerica.com/

• Mission Statement:“Preserving Family Ties and Heritage for futuregenerations”

• Motto:“By keeping families together, we give them back their futures.”

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AgeismDefinition: Prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person’s age

“Most seniors are mentally and physically active regardless of age with a great deal to contribute. However, societal norms marginalize seniors, treat them with disrespect, make them feel unwelcome and otherwise generalize as if they were all the same.”

Aging is normal, lifelong and cumulative• Life course perspective• Experiences are carried forward

Aging is distinct from disease and decline• Part of our biological design• Aging is not synonymous with disease or disability• With the right contextual and social supports, older adults can remain healthy and maintain high levels of independence and functioning

• Despite natural changes in vision, hearing, mobility and muscle strength

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Cultural beliefs on aging• Individualism

• Mind over matter – “You are only as old as you feel”• Health individualism – “You’re responsible for your health lifestyle”• Wealth individualism ‐ “You’re responsible for your financial lives and income security”

• Implications:• Directs attention away from individual and collective responsibly to 

adapt public infrastructures in support of older Americans. 

• The “Us vs. Them” Cultural model• A separate and singular class• Implications:  separate fate for the older and structures zero‐sum thinking

• The “Modern Life is Hard” Cultural model• Dispersed family – change of family structure• Economic and employment challenges• Social security is doomed

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Frameworks Institute, 2015

“Contexts for Young Child Flourishing: Evolution, Family and Society”   D. Narvaez, et al, 2016

• Individualism and young children• Evolutionary developmental systems of families and communities

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Reflections on 3 Gen home visiting

Grandparents Matter: The Role of Kinship Care in Home Visiting

Ounce of Prevention6th Annual Home Visiting Summit

Clare Anderson, Policy FellowChapin Hall

Grandparents Matter: The Role of Kinship Care in Home Visiting

Young Children, Grandparents, Home Visiting and Child Welfare: What do we know about this intersection?

We don’t have a full picture in the literature…

So, more generally:

Child Welfare Demographics: Young Children; Kin Care Young Children and Foster Care • About 129k children age 5 or under entered foster care during FY15

(Total N=269,509/48%)

• By far the largest age group of children entering foster care in FY15 was children less than 1 year (N=47,219/18%) with the next closest age being 1 year (20,077/7%) and 2 years (N=17,793/7%)

• About 170K children in foster care, regardless of placement type, are 5 or under (Total N=427,901/40%)

Kin Care• About 128K children in foster care, regardless of age, are with in kin care

(Total N=427,901/30%)

• These data do not speak to the number of children who came to the attention of child welfare and were diverted to relatives as an alternative to foster care

(N=~400,000 of all ages/Urban Institute, 2003)

NSCAW Analyses: Placement Type by Age; Caregiver TypePlacement Type by Age• Only 25% of children in foster care between ages 1 & 2 and 29% of

children ages 3 to 5 were placed in kin care homes

Caregiver Type• Of kin care caregivers, for children of all ages, 60.9% were

grandmothers

One State’s Experience

• 85,000 children lived with grandparents in 2015

• About 923 children age 5 and under entered care for the first time (Total N=1916/46%)

• About 923 of these children, regardless of age, were predominately placed with kin caregivers (Total N=4163/22%)

Research Considerations at the Intersection

There are many!

Starting simply to define the population:• Update and refine the NSCAW analysis to gain a clearer

picture of grand parenting in the context of child welfare and young children

(and, we will revisit this at the end of the presentation)

SourcesKids Count Data Center - http://www.datacenter.kidscount.org/

AFCARS 2015 - http://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/resource/afcars-report-23

Urban Institute: Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Children in Grandparent Care (Scarcella et al, 2003)http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/310842-Identifying-and-Addressing-the-Needs-of-Children-in-Grandparent-Care.PDF

US Census Bureau – Co-Resident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren 2012 (Ellis et al, 2014)American Community Survey (ACS)/Current Population Survey (CPS)http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p20-576.pdf

HHS/ACF/OPRE - National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being: One Year in Foster Care http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/oyfc_report.pdfHHS/ACF/OPRE - National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being #15: Kinship Caregivers in the Child Welfare Systemhttp://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/rb_15_2col.pdf

Chapin Hall Foster Care Data Archivehttps://fcda.chapinhall.org/

HHS/HRSA/MCH – Home Visiting Overviewhttp://mchb.hrsa.gov/maternal-child-health-initiatives/home-visiting-overview

Contact InformationClare AndersonPolicy Fellow

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicagohttp://www.chapinhall.org/experts/clare-anderson

Email: canderson@chapinhall.orgTwitter: @clareanderson16

Grandparents Matter: Intergenerational Caregiving and Black Families

Tashira Halyard

ALLIANCE FOR RACIAL EQUITY IN CHILD WELFARE

•Founded in 2004, with the purpose of informing programs, practices and policies that achieve racial equity in child welfare systems. 

•Knowledge dissemination about racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system.

•Work with social service administrators and states to assist in their efforts to make their systems more equitable using data‐driven approaches.

2014 NATIONAL CHILD WELFARE DATA BY RACE

Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) FY 2013 data. (2015).; and Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Data Center. Child Population By Race. (2014). 

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24 22

42

11.2

13

24

78.3

4.9

AmericanIndian/Alaska Native

Children

Black or AfricanAmerican Children

Hispanic or LatinoChildren

White Children Asian Children

Percent of children in foster care Percent of U.S. population

MY STORY…

GRANDPARENTS AS PROTECTIVE FACTORS

•Dual parenting•Stabilizers and protectors•Social connectors• Low conflict, strong emotional attachments

•Transmitted culture and values•Built resilience

INTERGENERATIONAL CAREGIVING IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY•Among all ethnic groups, African Americans have the highest rates of kinship caregiving (formal and informal)

• Black families more likely to have diverse and flexible family structures

• “Kin” is defined widely, far beyond the nuclear family •Rooted in history of slavery, systemic oppression and economic adversity

•Systems are catching up

CONTACT 

Tashira Halyard, Senior AssociateTashira.Halyard@cssp.org(202) 371‐1565

https://twitter.com/CtrSocialPolicy

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Center‐for‐the‐Study‐of‐Social‐Policy

www.cssp.org

Grandparents MatterHome Visiting comes to Three Gen

6th Annual Home Visiting SummitNovember 16, 2016

Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., M.Ed.Senior Fellow, Institute for Child  Success

jgruendel@instituteforchildsuccess

We all have mental images of our own “three generation” families. Home for the holidays, all around the table…Nana and Poppi there when the baby comes… 

Family photos filled from end to end                                                                            with smiling faces… 

Dropping off the little ones for a long weekend with grammie and gramps…And then we all go home, our kids safely in tow…

1 in 12

“Having my grandchildren move in was not planned, but it is very rewarding and also crazy to manage at times because kids nowadays are just very different 

from how I grew up.”

Grandparents raising their grandchildren come in all shapes and sizes, ages and races. They live in my community, and yours. 

“There is never enough money to make ends meet and pay the monthly bills…  If I didn’t get free diapers and formula, I don’t 

think I could fulfill my duties as a grandmother. “

“There are too many programs and services that helpfor a short while or have waiting lists….”

“If I was a regular foster parent or an adoptive parent, I could get a lot more help.  Sometimes I feel like a 

dumping ground.”

We call them kinship foster families, informal child care, respite parents…. 

They connect with our services and systems in ways may meet the systems’ needs 

but may not meet their needs. 

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What if….….we were committed to support grandparents raising their grandchildren in ways that were BETTER than the best we have done so far? How can we be “science-informed”? What would we do differently? What policies do we need? How could home visiting become our partner? How can we learn to see and feel and know the world through the eyes of

our elders who have taken on this extraordinary responsibility?

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Science of poverty, scarcity & racism

Science of adversity, trauma & toxic stress

Neuroscience: Early brain development Attachment, Serve and ReturnExecutive function & self‐regulation skills for children, youth & young adultsScience of health agingMindfulness, Empathy and  joy

Science of resilience:                    Internal and external Protective Factors

Implementation Science: Fidelity to model

We must become “three‐gen science‐informed…”

Use the Science

• Adopt a three‐generation ”theory of change” informed by both the science of adversity and the science of resilience

• Teach gently about  “the new child development” in a way that honors  grandparents ownexperiences as a parent

• Learn about the science of  elderhood

• Adapt  medical home,  home visiting and kinship care models to meet the special needs of elders caring for young children

Wrap Around the Family Unit

Deliver community supports and services to the child and grand parent simultaneously as well as individually, and  wrap them around the family as a whole.

Attend to  social‐emotional realities involving  the grand parent and birth parent who has become “the absent parent”

Commit  to support  over  a longer duration  that  may,  in fact,  increase as the grandparent ages

Focus on Strengths and Resilience

Services and supports quickly focus on individual and family strengths and assets, including within the extended family

Build on community protective factors including peer networks

Use music, art and writing to give “voice” to grandparents  and foster connections with their grand kids

Respect grandparents’ needs for peer time and alone time

Build a Connected System

Build  new partnerships within the service sector, including

Transportation Housing Child care for respiteMental health services for adult and child  anxiety and depression Elder health  Public School System Child and adult “preventive services” Real‐time data sharing Professional development anchored in  elder and young children /adolescent development

We can make four sensible changes

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“Perception is highly personal, made from our life experiences

and our temperaments. It’s almost as if each of us goes through life wearing a pair of glasses that alters the world so that we see it the way we need,

want, or expect it to be.”

The Power of Understanding: See the World Through Your Child’s Eyes

We need to recognize that we may have become part of the problem….

Understanding what “grandparents raising their grandchildren” 

see, feel and need enables us to become part of the solution.

Grandparents caring for their grandchildren are:

Weirdly wonderfulWise but stubborn

Worried but hope‐fullWondering where “they” 

went wrongWishing they weren’t so tired

Wanting to be valuedWelcoming help

These are precious times and grand parents really matter…

No excuses. We can do this.

Jgruendel@instituteforchildsuccess.org

Janice.Gruendel@aya.yale.edu

Remember, elders rock !!!

Policy ConsiderationsStepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families (AECF, 2012)

• Increase financial stability for kinship families• Access to benefits• TANF-funded programs design to meet needs

• Strengthen kinship families involved with child welfare• Child welfare and court practices to increase placement with kin• Diversion to be guided by sound policy and practice• Subsidized guardianship maximization

• Enhance community and government responses to kin providers• Stable housing• Affordable legal representation• Access to health care• Ability to enroll children in school• Community-based support

http://www.aecf.org/resources/stepping-up-for-kids/