From our GrandFamily to yours, comes a warm welcome to all who come to our unique one of a kind web site and organization. GrandFamilies of America is a national organization which provides support/mentoring to the over 3.5 million relatives caring for over 7 million relative children in our country.  All of our staff are either currently relative caregivers themselves, or have been at some time in their lives. This means when you call our 24/7 hot line your will feel an immediate connection to the person you are speaking with. We will attempt to connect the dots for you with referral, education, support, and mentoring through whatever situation you are dealing with.

 Although kinship providers around the country are elated at the passing of the new Fostering Success bill signed by President Bush on October 8, 2008, we do not plan to let our guard down. We know we still have much work to do. We are also keenly aware that we need to be diligent in our efforts to monitor the implementation of this bill in our respective states. The national partners have developed the document entitled “In The Weeds”, which will be an invaluable tool in helping both advocates and caregivers understand this bill and its far reaching implications. This bill is a monumental steps in child welfare reform. The final document on understanding, implementation, and enforcement is now available on our legislative page. You will not want to miss the new document on the notification component of this bill. Look for this soon on our web site under the legislation link.

GrandFamilies of America has under gone some organizational changes and now proudly announces a new arm of the organization designed to expand our resources to the relative caregiver of children population. That is the GrandFamilies of America Relative Caregiver Consultant Group. To learn more about this exciting group, be sure and contact the national office. Also a new addition has come to our speaker bureau. You can now experience the real journey of relative caregivers, by having one of our Executive Caregiver Board members present at your next event. Check out our “Meet Our Family” link to learn more about this or contact our office.

Looking back over the last 10 years, I/we can be encouraged by how far we have come. Please remember we have lots of help from partnerships formed along the way. Some of those are AARP, Child Focus, The Center For Law & Social Policy, The Children’s Defense Fund, The American Bar Association, and Generations United, just to name a few. I would remiss if I did not mention my partners in Maryland where everything started for me regarding advocacy for those first responders who step up to the plate to protect and provide for their relative children. For fear of leaving someone out, you know who you are and how much I appreciate all of  you.

Sincerely,

Pat Owens

President/CEO GrandFamilies of America