Kinship Care Forum Sparks Conversations About Advocacy
Becky Schmidgall, Kinship Family Group Facilitator
To kick off the new year, Seeds Community Center staff joined forces with Children’s Action Alliance (CAA) to host the Kinship Care Forum. CAA works to effect policy changes on behalf of children in Arizona and has a long history of advocating on behalf of kinship families. At our forum, they hoped to both share past successes in advocacy and current initiatives, while also giving kinship families the opportunity to directly share their experiences.
Guest speaker Michelle Crow, the Southern Arizona Director of CAA, began by defining advocacy as taking actions to create change. She discussed some of the things advocacy organizations do, and shared the history of their organization and highlighted the groundbreaking work they’ve accomplished, both throughout Arizona and nationwide.
Then Crow, and her colleague Lori Goodspeed, provided an opportunity for our families to share their thoughts. Our discussion revolved around what types of support would’ve been helpful to them at the beginning of their kinship placement, what would be helpful now, and what might be helpful in the future. Our families spoke openly about their experiences: the challenges they have faced, what has and hasn’t worked, and ideas for possible solutions.
Crow and Goodspeed said it was so helpful to receive firsthand accounts from our kinship caregivers, because they can utilize these stories to inform their advocacy efforts moving forward.
One of the frustrations often expressed by our families is that they feel unseen and unheard. It was encouraging to witness this opportunity for caregivers to be acknowledged and taken seriously.
Some of the needs expressed were:
Community and/or more support groups (like our Kinship Dinners)
Childcare and respite opportunities which are trauma-sensitive, especially ones that offer small groups with similarly-aged children
Post-adoption support
Education re: guardianship vs. adoption
Paid leave upon adoption of a child
Interracial resources/support
Therapists (for children and caregivers)
Male mentors for children
College planning and financial aid information
End of life planning
In their time advocating for foster-kinship families, CAA has:
Helped to successfully pass the grandparent stipend in 2014
Established Grandfamily Day at the state capitol for kinship families to share their stories with lawmakers and raise awareness of the unique needs for kinship families
Advocated for the White House to declare September “National Kinship Care Month” (an acknowledgement that we celebrate!)
Successfully passed the bill to remove the TANF “Kid Cap” for kinship families in 2016
Advocated for DCS to prioritize kinship placements over licensed foster homes. DCS is now required to make their best effort at identifying family first
CAA continues to work with lawmakers to establish policies which will expand support to foster-kinship families like those who attend our Kinship Dinners. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to host them and look forward to partnering with them in the future.
If you’d like to get updates or get involved in CAA’s advocacy efforts, visit www.azchildren.org.
We have two events in February for foster-kinship families, both of which will have childcare provided:
Caregiver Coffee Break: Saturday, February 15th at 10 am - 1 pm. Free respite care for foster-kinship families. This event is geared toward children 12 and younger, but older kids are also welcome to join us. RSVP at https://bit.ly/CaregiverBreakFeb2025
Kinship Dinner: Thursday, February 20th at 6pm- 8pm. We host our dinners every month and provide childcare so the caregivers have an opportunity to connect (5005 E. Winsett St, near Broadway & Craycroft). While an RSVP for this event is not required, we do appreciate a heads up if a family is bringing multiple children to ensure we have adequate childcare.
