Celebrating National Kinship Care Month

Celebrated in September, National Kinship Care Month recognizes and celebrates the grandparents, aunts, uncles, relatives, and non-relatives who care for children when they cannot safely remain with their parents.

Learn More

When children are unable to live with their parents, it is critical that they live with someone they know and trust. This helps to create a sense of security, community, and cultural identity and can reduce the trauma of being removed from their home. Kinship care refers to circumstances where grandparents, extended family members, and other adults with family-like relationships with children take on the primary caregiving role when biological parents are unable to do so.

Unfortunately, not all children who are removed from their parents have an opportunity to live with their kin. National Kinship Care Month is a reminder of the important work of keeping children connected to their kin. Additionally, it is a great time to thank the caregivers who are supporting children both inside and outside of the child welfare system.

2020 Statistics

In 2020:

• more than 68,000 children were informally being raised by kin without a parent present,

• over 6,000 children in Pennsylvania were being raised by kin formally through the child welfare system, and

• for every one child raised by kin through the foster care system, it is projected that there are 10 children being raised informally.

The KinConnector Program

Pennsylvania’s KinConnector program provides valuable resources to kind who are caring for children informally or formally through the child welfare system. Every Wednesday in September, the program is hosting virtual informational forums on a variety of topics, including:

• financial assistance,

  1. legal rights,

  2. education and child care,

  3. mental health,

  4. and more.

These events are open to the public. To register and learn more, visit the KinConnector event page.