A Different Kind of Generation Gap
Columbus, Ohio

The Problem

What happens when you realize your family volunteering programs are overlooking nontraditional family units, made up of people who are all-too-used to being forgotten?

According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 23 percent of all youth in the foster care system — more than 120,000 nationwide — live as part of kinship families. Traditionally underrepresented and underserved, kinship families are family units where children are raised by biological relatives or family friends. (Grandparents raising grandchildren are the most common examples.) In the Columbus, Ohio, area, a silent undercurrent of kinship families was struggling to stay solvent. Hardworking but isolated, the families needed fellowship, not a handout.

The Solution

Although Franklin County Children Services (FCCS) had a kinship program for its registered families, there was nothing comparable for families without FCCS affiliation. FCCS began looking for an agency to bring a fresh perspective to kinship family outreach. After a successful bid, FIRSTLINK was awarded the program — and all of its complications. Jan Leibovitz Alloy, vice president of Resource Management at FIRSTLINK, said, “It’s always really difficult, because the families are isolated,” adding that kinship families often don’t realize their efforts are exceptional. “They know it’s hard, but they don’t know that there are resources for them.”

How They Did It

FIRSTLINK began with outreach (a difficult task, since there was no central location for kinship families) and then started offering programs specifically aimed at kinship families’ needs. Or, more accurately, they began offering programs for what they thought kinship families wanted. Experts on the legal system and behavioral issues were invited to give special guest lectures. FIRSTLINK used grant money to form support groups at several locations in the community but soon discovered that kinship families needed more than just peers to listen to their complaints. “That interested them, but what interested them more was learning to advocate for themselves,” said Alloy.

The program adapted quickly; rather than providing a forum for concerns and support, they started offering advocacy initiatives and childcare during meetings. And as families networked with one another and with the Volunteer Center, they began serving as volunteers themselves.

Each day, the program continues to expand and evolve. Alloy, along with Kinship Navigator Coordinator Roderick Aldridge, Community Kinship Outreach Specialist Lindsey Schilling and the entire Volunteer Center have put together a handbook for other organizations looking to start kinship family support groups. Publicity including a TV news story by a well-known local news anchor, herself from a kinship family, brought even more kinship families together. And with additional grant money they’ve received recently, they’ve begun work on creating an advisory board made exclusively of kinship families in their program, so they can have even more of a direct line to the community they serve.

The Results

The reality of FIRSTLINK’s kinship program is different than Alloy or anyone at the Volunteer Center had anticipated. However, the Volunteer Center’s decision to let the community choose their areas of interest — essentially, to help guide the programming — created a stronger and more relevant peer group than any amount of planning alone would have. By being flexible and receptive, the kinship program is not only expanding and strengthening the community; it’s also changing the way that FIRSTLINK serves its constituents.

Lessons Learned

• You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. Working within the framework of the already-existing program helped FIRSTLINK build on an established network of kinship families, as well as learn from the program’s successes and failures.

• Don’t be afraid of change. What the kinship family program looked like in FIRSTLINK’s collective imagination and what the kinship family program looks like now are vastly different from each other. If Alloy, Aldridge and Schilling had been rigid in how they chose to run their program, kinship families would probably still be meeting in support groups they didn’t really want or need.

• Remember that people your organization serves and people who serve with your organization can be one and the same. As the kinship family program strengthened, family members began volunteering with FIRSTLINK — which gave the families yet another connection to their community.

Resources

Based in New York City, the Brookdale Foundation Group offers grants specifically targeted towards the concerns of America’s elderly population. Their Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) offers funding specifically for grandparents raising their grandchildren.

Generations United offers both a network of partner agencies and a compendium of resources for organizations that target intergenerational development. Information on training, funding and the online library are all available through their Web site.

Contact Information

For more information on FIRSTLINK’s kinship programming, contact Jan Leibovitz Alloy at jlalloy@firstlink.org or Roderick Aldridge at kinship@firstlink.org.