Happy New Year! Friends of Grandfamilies
Below you will find some recent updates and resources from the field. If you know anyone who may be interested in receiving these alerts, please forward this to them and/or encourage them to sign up here.
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Generations United
in the News
Executive Director Donna Butts and GRAND Voices Linda Lewis and Eugene Vickerson were featured on the December 12, 2022, episode of NPR's Here & Now. The story is called "It takes creativity — and love: Grandparents persevere to feed their families," and the recording and text highlights are available here.
Donna is also quoted in an article in Fast Company, "This is what Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z can learn from each other at work." She discusses both technology and communication styles. Read more.
Photo: Executive Director Donna Butts and GRAND Voices Linda Lewis and Eugene Vickerson
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Global Conference Updates
Registration is open for Generations United's Global Intergenerational Conference, to be held July 26-28, 2023 in Washington, DC! Special savings are available to people who register by March 15. Register today!
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New Racial Equity Tip Sheets Available
With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Generations United is pleased to share a new series of tip sheets to accompany our racial equity toolkits. These tools are designed to help professionals serving grandfamilies provide culturally appropriate services.
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Partner With Us!
State-Specific Adoption
and Guardianship
Comparison Chart
Generations United is developing state-specific comparison charts to help grandfamilies understand the difference between adoption and guardianship for children leaving foster care to permanency with relatives, with support from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. For this project, we partner with a state or local organization to help compile state-specific information, distribute the resource, and include their logo in the publication.
We are currently seeking state or local partners in California, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Please contact Chelsi Rhoades, Public Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, at crhoades@gu.org if you are interested in partnering with Generations United on an Adoption and Guardianship Comparison Chart in your state!
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Kinship Best Practices Webinar
January 17th at 2:00pm ET
Join SME ABA Center on Children and the Law and Generations United to learn about promising kinship practices from across the country. This webinar will highlight examples found in the Kinship Promising Practices brief, released in October 2022 in partnership with Casey Family Programs. The webinar will provide examples of state kinship practices in an effort to foster policy and practice change aimed at promoting increased kin placement and permanency and successfully implementing a kin first culture. Register today!
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Healthy Sexuality for Youth in Foster Care: An Online Training for Parents and Caregivers of Youth in Foster Care
January 19th at 2:00-2:30pm ET
Do you provide direct or indirect support to parents or caregivers of youth in foster care? Are you interested in learning more about a free, online training to help parents and caregivers feel more comfortable and prepared to talk with youth in care about relationships and healthy sexuality?
The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), invite you to join this webinar to learn about Healthy Sexuality for Youth in Foster Care: An Online Training for Parents and Caregivers of Youth in Foster Care, developed in partnership with Mathematica and dfusion, Inc. The free, three-hour online training was created to help parents and caregivers of youth in foster care ages 10 and older learn about topics related to adolescent sexual health and strengthen their communication skills. Register here.
Child Welfare League of America
Peer Leadership Development, Networking,
& Support Session
January 19th at 1:00pm ET
This session highlights how to leverage the peer leadership role in assisting those who have experienced one or more public system(s) and/or marginalized identity to realize the power of combined lived experience and lived expertise. This includes youth who are currently or formerly in foster care who are in the process of moving into more formalized roles as professionals in child welfare systems and/or non-profit agencies. Register here.
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The FosterClub's 2023 internship is open through February 17th!
FosterClub's 2023 AllStar internship is a service and training opportunity for young people with lived experience in the foster care system. AllStars will learn to amplify perspectives of themselves and other young people in foster care through advocacy and activism to motivate their peers and use their own lived experience to affect systemic change. The AllStar internship is a hybrid 6-week professional and personal development program that includes 2 weeks of in-person service training in Oregon. You can learn more here.
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Home for the Holidays:
Staying Connected
This is the first in a new series of monthly mini-resources produced by the Network, under the leadership of our partners at ZERO TO THREE. The resources will all be short (this one is two pages) and, in alternating months, they will be geared toward either families or professionals. This month’s resource, which focuses on reducing caregiver feelings of isolation, is intended to serve as a useful tool that you can provide to the families with whom you work. The resource is available in both English and Spanish.
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FY 2023 Appropriations Update
On December 20th, 2022, Democratic and Republican appropriators released a $1.7 trillion 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill. This bill includes $20 million of federal funding for kinship navigator programs in 2023, the same level of funding as navigator programs received in 2022. For additional details, please refer to pages
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Photo: GRAND Voices Kathy Coleman, who is featured in the 2022 State of Grandfamilies Report
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Thanks for reading this newsletter. If you have anything you would like included in future newsletters, please send them to Jamarl D. Clark at jclark@gu.org. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback or comments.
Best,
The Grandfamilies Team
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