News Affecting Grandparents

 

NCGCR PUBLISHES E-NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the first edition of GrandVoice, the official newsletter of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights (NCGCR). Since its inception, NCGCR has been the voice of grandparents and other kinship caregivers who have stepped in when the situation requires providing for children in broken homes. As an advocate organization we have lobbied for important legislation, provided services that guided caregivers through the complicated channels of regulations, and sometimes just been there to lend a compassionate ear.

Now as our organization grows and our mission remains ever more important, we are happy to inaugurate this e-newsletter so that we can share important information that may be helpful as a caregiver, as well as information about NCGCR and some of its members around the country. We now have 42 chapters staffed by volunteers who can provide information, or point you in the right direction.

We look forward to bringing you information about events or seminars being held around the country that focus on kinship caregiving, and provide an opportunity to meet others, like yourself, who are faced with some of the same challenges. Each issue will have updates on important new legislation that is being considered on the state or federal level.

Please feel free to share GrandVoice with anyone you think might benefit. We look forward to your feedback. Let us know what you would like to have included in future issues.

 

NCGCR is proud to partner with GRAND the online Magazine for Grandparents

GRAND has made it their mission to provide grandparents of all ages and in all stages of life both information and inspiration. Through GRAND Magazine and now, through GRAND online, they have created a world that celebrates the joys and tackles the challenges of one of life's sweetest experiences - having grandchildren. Brigitte Castellano, Executive Director of NCGCR, is a frequent editorial contributor to GRAND. She provides great insight into grandparent caregiving, and other topical issues facing grandparents nationwide.

When you purchase a subscription to GRAND through NCGCR, GRAND is donating $2.00 to NCGCR.  Not only will you receive a beautiful, interactive magazine with timely articles and tips for getting the most of your grandparent experience, your purchase helps support the mission of NCGCR.
 
If you haven't read GRAND Magazine before, you can preview it at www.GrandMagazine.com. 
 
A one-year subscription to GRAND online is only $5.99 and two-years is $8.99. Click on "Subscription Services" and enter our private code number NCMFA1 to insure that NCGCR receives credit for your purchase.

 

View video of NCGCR’s Executive Director, Brigitte Castellano’s appearance on Fox’s Mike and Juliet Show:

www.mandjshow.com/videos/grand-parental-guidance

 

View video of Brenda LeQuire (NCGCR Chapter Leader of TN) as she testifies before the TN legislature concerning the necessity of a DeFacto Law in that state:

http://moe.legislature.state.tn.us/HouseAR/House106-1/Joint/Children/111408.wmv

 

President Bush signs the Fostering Connections to Success Bill into law: The bill consists of the following:

Fostering Connections to Success and
Increasing Adoption Act
Will Improve Outcomes for Children and Youth
in Foster Care

On October 7, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (H.R.6893). The act will help hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster care by promoting permanent families for them through relative guardianship and adoption and improving education and health care.  Additionally, it will extend federal support for youth to age 21. H.R. 6893 also will offer for the first time many American Indian children important federal protections and support. H.R. 6893 has bipartisan support and is fully paid for. This bill resolves differences between the House-passed Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307) and the Senate Finance Committee-approved Chairman’s Mark of S. 3038, the Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act.

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act improves outcomes for children and youth in foster care by:

Promoting Permanent Families for Children in Foster Care
 
With Relatives

• Subsidized Guardianship Payments for Relatives.  Helps children in foster care leave care to live permanently with grandparents and other relative guardians when they cannot be returned home or adopted and offers federal support to states to assist with subsidized guardianship payments to these families.  Clarifies that all children who currently receive federally-supported subsidized guardianship payments in states with Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers will be able to continue to receive that assistance under the new program.   
• Notice to Relatives When Children Enter Care. Increases opportunities for relatives to step in when children are removed from their parents and placed in foster care by ensuring they get notice of this removal.
• Kinship Navigator Programs. Guarantees funds for Kinship Navigator programs, through new Family Connection grants, to help connect children living with relatives, both in and out of foster care, to supports and assistance they need.   
• Licensing Standards for Relatives.  Clarifies that states may waive non-safety related licensing standards for relatives on a case-by-case basis and requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to report to Congress on ways to further eliminate licensing barriers so that more children can be placed with relatives in foster care and be eligible for federal support.

With Adoptive Families

• Incentives for Adoption. Increases incentives to states to find adoptive families for children in foster care, especially those with disabilities or other special needs and older youth.   
• Adoption Assistance.  Increases opportunities for more children with special needs to receive federally-supported adoption assistance without regard to the income of the birth families from whom they were originally removed.

With Birth Families and Other Relatives

• Establishes New Family Connection Grants.  Increases resources for Kinship Navigator programs, as described above, Family Group Decision-making meetings, Intensive Family Finding activities, and Residential Family-Based Substance Abuse Treatment, all of which can help children stay safely with family members and out of foster care or, once in care, return to their parents or other family members.

• Keeping Siblings Together. Preserves the sibling bond for children by requiring states to make reasonable efforts to place siblings together when they must be removed from their parents’ home, provided it is in the children’s best interests.   In the case of siblings not placed together, states must make reasonable efforts to provide for frequent visitation or other ongoing interaction, unless such interaction would be harmful to any of the siblings.

Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth in Foster Care

• Foster Care for Older Youth.  Helps youth who turn 18 in foster care without permanent families to remain in care, at state option, to age 19, 20, or 21 with continued federal support to increase their opportunities for success as they transition to adulthood.
• Educational Stability.  Helps children and youth in foster care, guardianship and adoption achieve their educational goals by requiring that states ensure that they attend school and, when placed in foster care, they remain in their same school where appropriate, or, when a move is necessary, get help transferring promptly to a new school; also provides increased federal support to assist with school-related transportation costs.   
• Health Care Coordination.  Helps improve health care for children and youth in foster care by requiring the state child welfare agency to work with the state Medicaid agency to create a plan to better coordinate health care for these children in order to ensure appropriate screenings and assessments and follow-up treatment and to assure sharing of critical information with appropriate providers and oversight of prescription medications.   

Increasing Support for American Indian and Alaska Native Children

• Direct Access to Federal Support for Indian Tribes. Offers, for the first time, many American Indian and Alaska Native children federal assistance and protections through the federal foster care and adoption assistance programs that hundreds of thousands of other children are eligible for already. 
• Technical Assistance and Implementation Services.  Requires HHS to provide technical assistance and implementation services dedicated to improving services and permanency outcomes for Indian children and their families.

Improving the Quality of Staff Working with Children in the Child Welfare System

• Extended federal support for training of staff.  Expands the availability of federal training dollars, on a phased in basis, to reach more of those caring for and working with children in the child welfare system, including relative guardians, staff of private child welfare agencies, court personnel, attorneys, guardian ad litems, and court appointed special advocates.

 

Attorney Joins NCGCR Avisory Board

Heidi Redlich Epstein, JD, MSW, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, has become the newsest member of the National Committee of Grandprents for Children's Rights Advisory Bord. Ms. Epstein presented the NCGCR Workshop, "Understanding Your Children's Rights," as one of the organization's pre-event learning opportunities for members and interested others during the GrandRally in Washington, DC, in May 2008.

 

Linda James, NCGCR Treasurer, was presented with the Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award

On April 7th, Linda James, NCGCR Treasurer, was presented with the Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award at the Prevent Child Abuse Conference held in Albany New York. We are very proud of the fine work Linda is doing on behalf of grandparents and children and congratulate her on this award.

 

NCGCR Co-Founder Wins Public Office

Ellen Anadio, elected to represent the Fourth Ward on the City Council in Gloversville, NY

GLOVERSVILLE,NY - Ellen Anadio, co-founder of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children's Rights (NCGCR), was elected on Tues., Nov. 6, to represent the Fourth Ward on the City Council in Gloversville, NY, her home. This is the first time Ms. Anadio has run for a public office.

Her candidacy grew out of advocacy work that began four years ago when she lobbied and gathered signatures in support of New York's groundbreaking legislation for grandparent visitation. As a co-founder and secretary of records for NCGCR, Ms. Anadio went on to attend the Grand Rally held in Sept. 2005 in Washington, D.C.

"I learned that making a difference means getting involved," she says. "Saying we need change is just not enough. I believe that our council can be improved through hard work and openness. I am not a stranger to either."

Ms. Anadio adds that her present goal is "to bring some stability and logic" to the City Council position. "Our council and our city are at a crossroads. This is not the time for argument or anger. It is an opportunity for change and progress."

 

Two National Organizations Join to Keep Kids with Families

STONY BROOK, NY and WASHINGTON, DC – Two national organizations have formed a new partnership for the purpose of keeping kids with their families.

Leaders of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights (NCGCR) and the National Association of Former Foster Care Children of America, Inc. (NAFFCCA) introduced the partnership as a collaboration of mutual interests to promote public policy and action that emphasize out of home placement with relatives for children and youth who lack parental support. The two organizations’ focus on relative placement also includes strong advocacy for nurturing stronger family bonds for children in out of home placement through ongoing visitation with relatives.

“We’re very pleased to announce this partnership,” said Brigitte Castellano, executive director of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights. “It is an association that reflects our organizations' mutual commitment to supporting the needs of children who lack parental support.”

“As a former foster child who grew up without the benefits of being close to members of my own birth family, I must say that I am committed to improving the quality of life for children and youth who are currently experiencing out of home placement,” said Louis Henderson, president and founder of the National Association of Former Foster Care Children of America, Inc. “Our new partnership with the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights can make a big positive difference for these kids and their families.”

As partners, NCGCR and NAFFCCA plan to advocate for family-friendly child welfare policy and placement. The two organizations also plan to seek additional public and private funding to support such legislative initiatives.

 

NCGCR Leaders Appointed to New Family Caregivers Council

ALBANY, NY - Two leaders of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights (NCGCR) have been appointed to the new 21-member New York State Family Caregiver Council. Brigitte Castellano, executive director of NCGCR, and Linda James, the organization’s treasurer, were named to the council by Michael J. Burgess, director of the New York State Office for the Aging.

In making his announcement of the new council and its membership, Burgess credited the more than 2 million caregivers in New York State with voluntary or family caregiving valued at $24 billion annually. He estimated that at least 80 percent of long term care in this state is provided by family or other informal caregivers.

The Council is charged with completing a review of key policies and practices related to family caregiving; completing a comprehensive review of existing services and needs of family caregivers; proposing new and innovative services and/or policy changes to strengthen family caregiving; and identifying ways to strengthen local agencies’ abilities to reach, assess and support caregivers’ needs.

“State support and assistance to family caregivers – whether they are helping meet the needs of a frail relative, friend, neighbor, member of a faith community, special needs child, or a child whose parents are not able to fulfill their parental obligations – are essential services that must be enhanced in order help people of all ages remain in their homes or communities of choice,” Burgess said. “Through the work of this Council, we will focus our efforts on identifying how to sustain and strengthen the informal supports provided by family caregivers of all kinds.”

 

Kin Carers Deserve the Same Support as Foster Carers Now

Wednesday, 5 September 2007, 3:34 pm
Press Release: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

The Government should fund grandparents raising grandchildren/kin carers with the same support they fund foster care-givers, says Grandparents Raising Grandchildren™ Trust NZ Founder, Diane Vivian.

“Grandparents are desperate for the extra support they see foster care-givers get as a matter of right.

Ms Vivian is commenting on questions asked in the Parliamentary today by United Future’s Judy Turner.

“It’s not fair that grandparents receive less money from the Government than foster care-givers for raising the same children.

Diane Vivian supports United Future’s questions to the Minister of Social Development, Hon Steve Maharey.

“We’re delighted to find at last some support for the cause of grandparents raising their grandchildren and kinship carers in Parliament. Our grandparents/carers do hard work without full financial assistance, respite care, counselling for troubled children or legal aid for ongoing custody battles.

“Grandparents Raising Grandchildren™ Trust NZ will continue to work for to achieve equity with foster care-givers for all kin carers, says Ms Vivian.

 

NCGCR Co-Founder, Lola Bailey, Quoted in NY Times Story

NCGCR president, Lola Bailey, is quoted in the following story from the New York TImes. To read the complete story, click on the link.

The New York Times - FASHION & STYLE | September 2, 2007
My Child's Divorce Is My Pain
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Parents put their lives on hold, and dig deep into their pockets.

FEATURE EXCERPT:
A RETIRED couple, Lola and Bill Bailey, lost touch for seven years with their two grandchildren after their daughter divorced her husband and he got custody. “When they came back to us, we had to mourn the children that we lost and we had to start from scratch,” Ms. Bailey said.
During those years, Ms. Bailey helped organize the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights, an organization that lobbies for laws that recognize children’s rights to keep in contact with their grandparents after a divorce. Despite a few legislative victories in states like New York, where grandparents can pursue visitation rights in some cases, Ms. Bailey, who travels with her husband on a motor coach around the country on behalf of their organization, said most grandparents are still at the mercy of the custodial parent and judges if they would like to keep seeing their grandchildren.

 

NCGCR treasurer, Linda James, featured in Child Welfare League Publication

NCGCR treasurer, Linda James, tells her first person kinship care story in the Summer 2007 edition of the Kinship Reporter, a publication of the Child Welfare League of America. Linda's story is on Page 5. Click on the following link to open the publication: http://cwla.org/programs/kinship/kinshipsummer2007.pdf

 

International Summit for Grandparent and Kinship Caregivers

First Internatioanl Summit for Grandparents and Kinship Caregivers took place on May 6-8, 2007 in Brooklyn, NY and was a great success.  Please click here for more information and photos from the event…

 

NCGCR Summit Is Subject of UN News Conference

Click on the links below for coverage of the NCGCR Summit news conference at the United Nations in New York on Apr. 2, 2007: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/02/news/UN-GEN-UN-Grandparents-Summit.php
http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=07040311151006&coll=buanew07
http://www.un.org/webcast/pc2007.htm
http://www.un.org/av/photo/detail/0142141.asp?sid=&browse=/av/photo/index.asp

 

Newslinks about Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

The second time around
Kansas City Star - MO,USA
Recently, more than a dozen grandparents raising their grandchildren met at St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City. They filled out paperwork to ...

Grandmother in bind to provide necessities for grandchildren*
Cherry Hill Courier Post - Cherry Hill,NJ,USA
"I'm raising grandchildren," Eagle said. "At one time I had seven; now I have one. When I started taking care of my grandchildren, I didn't even know there ...

 

NCGCR Receives National Kinship Advocacy Award

WASHINGTON - The National Committee of Grandparents for Children's Rights (NCGCR) has received the 2007 Kinship Care Advocacy Award from the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). Presented on Feb. 28 during CWLA's national conference in Washington, DC, the award recognizes NCGCR's "continuous advocacy and commitment to making kinship caregivers a national priority."

"We are very pleased to receive this award because it recognizes the work our organization does on behalf of grandparents and other relative caregivers nationwide," said Brigitte Castellano, NCGCR executive director.

CWLA also honored NCGCR treasure Linda James with the 2007 Kinship Caregiver Award.