This article originally appeared in the July-August 2001 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

"Rabble-rousing grandparents"

More grandparents are raising grandchildren--and advocating for the support they need

By Adam Parker

Rosalie Cauley will never forget the day ten years ago when her grandson Jeremy came back to live with her for good. Cauley had fought Jeremy's mother in court for three and a half years over custody of her grandchild. Then one day, Jeremy told school authorities about his life with his mother, who lived in her car and had problems with drugs and prostitution, Cauley says. The next morning Jeremy moved into his grandparents' house for good.

When Cauley began her fight for her grandchild in 1987, she had few places to turn. Grandparents, she says, were often viewed suspiciously by social services and the court system. Few lawyers had experience with such issues (Cauley is still paying for hers), and there were no peer support groups.

More grandparent caregivers

In the last 10 years, since Rosalie Cauley took over the care of her grandson, more and more grandparents have been drafted to raise their grandchildren. According to the U.S. Census, about four million kids live in households headed by grandparents. By 1996 almost half of California's foster children were in the care of relatives, mostly grandparents. In addition, many grandparents are raising children without going through the foster care system. During the '90s, grandparent caregivers began organizing support groups and joining with children's advocates, service providers, and concerned public officials to develop a support system for relatives raising children.

An agenda for caregivers

All these groups got together at a "kinship summit" in 1996, hosted by the California Department of Social Services and the County Welfare Directors Association. The participants set goals: to make relatives a first choice when placing children in foster homes, to make it easier for grandparents to adopt, to give grandparents the same support as other foster parents, and to fund support centers for relative caregivers.

Lloyd King, a grandparent caregiver who attended, recalls that when the summit created that agenda, "I thought it would be a cold day in you-know-what before it happened." Six months later, he and other grandparents were talking with legislators and testifying at hearings, advocating for bills that would achieve many of these goals. California Partnership for Children, a nonprofit with a track record of advocating for foster children, played a leading role in mobilizing support.

Cauley told her personal story in hearings on several of the bills. She recalls hearing snide comments about "rabble-rousing grandparents" and sometimes feeling that she and other grandparents were invited to participate only as "tokens." But, she says, "we just plodded along" and changed things over time.

New supports and recognition

By now most of the recommendations of that kinship summit have become law, creating major new support programs including the Kinship Guardian Assistance Program (Kin-GAP) and the Kinship Support Services Program (see Resources). The same coalition is still working to expand awareness of these programs and increase funding so that more grandparents can benefit.

Meanwhile, the issue of grandparents raising grandchildren has won new visibility. "Relative caregivers were a hidden population years ago," says Lillian Johnson, founder of a large kinship caregiver support program in San Francisco. Now there is "less shame and more acceptance."

While Johnson and other activists acknowledge that "there is a long way to go," they agree that the climate has changed dramatically. Lloyd King says the same county welfare staff people who once called him "a nosy, overconcerned grandparent" now refer other grandparents to his support organization. 

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Resources for relative caregivers

The needs of kinship families are unique and special," says Diane Ilan, coordinator of the kinship program at Families-Costa Mesa in Orange County. "We can't expect these families to use existing services in the same way they have been used in the past." As the number of grandparents raising grandchildren has grown, so have resources to support them.

National resources

State resources

Local resources

Many grandparents raising children are on fixed incomes or have health problems, and are often caring for children who come from troubled homes. Support organizations provide "a safe place," says Lillian Johnson, founder of a kinship care program at Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco. Many offer respite, counseling, financial and legal support, and peer support.

Local schools, community colleges, family courts, or child welfare agencies may be able to refer grandparents to resources and services.

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Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin (updated 2-08)

• Strengthening Grandfamilies through Respite Care, from the National Human Services Assembly, dicusses data on grandfamilies, the challenges grandparents face in raising grandchildren, and how they benefit from respite care. Includes policy recommendations and case studies.

To stay informed about new and upcoming Children’s Advocate articles, related resources, and advocacy opportunities, sign up for our Children’s Advocate bulletin

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