Kinship Support Services Program
and
Kinnections Initiative
Our Mission: To ensure a child’s opportunity for permanence in a safe and nurturing family
Volume 2, Issue 2 ~ Quarterly Newsletter ~ Fall/Winter 2010
Kinship Support Services Program Summer Fun
The summer months provide a time for creating fun family memories! The KSSP program supported kinship
families by offering opportunities for some family fun! The KSSP Advisory Board suggested we host a family
activity in July and August while kinship kids were out of school. In July we hosted an activity at Bouncetown where kids and caregivers played on the inflatable obstacle courses, slides, bounces houses, and climbing walls. A short workshop on the Power of Play and a light lunch were provided and kids of all ages enjoyed the bounce houses! We even saw some caregivers going down the big slide with their grandkids!!
The KSSP Youth Advisory Board (YAB) teens hosted a Kinship Respite Activity at Shasta Park. Kinship kids
were invited to play at the new water park and participate in a mini sports camp, face painting, and relay
games while caregivers enjoyed a morning “off”. The YAB teens showed fantastic leadership and organizational skills, creativity, hidden talents and engagement with the younger kids.
In August the Bowling and Backpack Giveaway was well attended and very spirited!! 40 kids and caregivers
made new friends and had fun, laughing, cheering and bumper bowling. 30 new backpacks filled with a
binder, note book, paper, highlighters, pencils, erasers, pencil box, and a desk basket were provided to kids
starting school in the fall.
“We had so much fun glow
bowling with our family.
We’ll have to come back
and do this again.
Thank you for the school
supplies and backpacks!”
The Annual Grandparents Picnic in August was a great opportunity to re-connect, eat delicious food, enjoy
the beautiful park and celebrate Grandparents!! In partnership with the North Area Grandparents Support
Group, the KSSP staff provided the children’s activities for this fun family picnic at Howe Park. Kinship kids
enjoyed the relay races, games and prizes, face painting, water fun, chalk art, golfing, hula hooping, and of
course the piñatas!!
Inside this issue:
KSSP Summer Fun
1
Kinnectedness Maps
4
KSSP Fun Friday Series
2
The Relative’s Corner
5
KSSP Art for Lilliput’s 30 Year Anniversary
2
Ongoing/Upcoming Events
6
Introduction to the Kinnections Initiative
3
Contact Information
6
Kinnections Success Story
3
KSSP Fun Friday Series
Our Fun Friday Series included a chance for
relative caregivers to create a Life Book for
the relative children in their care. Caregivers
spent 4 fun Friday mornings arranging photos
and laying out the life stories of their children. Beautiful pages of smiling children, outdoor activities, and siblings were presented in
the photo albums. With decorative scissors,
cut outs and stickers, the life books took
shape and captured the unique qualities and
stories of relative children in kinship care.
On alternating Fridays we continue to host
Dana McKnight from the American River College Foster Kinship Care and Education Department. Dana hosts an interactive learning
session on specific child and teen development stages caregivers bring to the group.
She also offers effective parenting techniques
and support for relative caregivers. She has a
wealth of experience and knowledge with kinship issues and is dedicated to supporting
relative caregivers. We are excited to host
this partnership with American River College’s
FKCE, Peggy McDermott and Dana McKnight.
KSSP Art Project for Lilliput’s 30th Anniversary
With the talents of Leslie Colby and Linda Johnson, KSSP teens
learned how to create water color art. Using a variety of art tricks,
the teens were inspired by the teachers to create their own
interpretation of live flowers. Beautiful orchids, lilies, roses and sunflowers were the inspiration of the art work. The teens created some
spectacular art pieces. Thank you to Leslie and Linda for teaching us
how to use crayon, water color paints, and our imaginations to make
beautiful art pieces!! The art work was framed and auctioned at
Lilliput’s 30th Anniversary Event on September 11th, 2010.
“That was the
most fun I’d
ever had
painting.
I
didn’t know I
could do art.
I love my
painting, it’s
really
pretty!!”
Kinship Support Services Program and Kinnections Initiative
Page 2
Introduction to the Kinnections Initiative
The Kinnections Initiative is a federally funded program that is aimed at combating the
disproportionality of African American youth in the foster care system by providing
intensive family finding services. (African American youth make up only 10% of
Sacramento County’s child population but 40% of the county’s foster children). The
Kinnections Program draws on groundbreaking tactics to locate, engage and support
family members to get children out of the foster care system and into a permanent home
with relatives for the best possible outcomes. The end goal is to significantly increase the
number of foster children who are placed with family members, helping to ensure that
children have a permanent, safe and nurturing environment to grow up in. Once a child is
placed in a relative’s home, Kinnections offers extensive supportive services including inhome case management, therapeutic support, permanency guidance, linkage to resources,
and navigation of complex systems (such as medical, school, or legal) with the goal of
stabilizing the placement and facilitating permanency.
Kinnections Initiative Success Story
Latasha and Travis, ages 1 and 2, were placed in foster care due to neglect. Upon Kinnections
receiving the referral for Family Finding, there were no identified relatives and the children were residing in a foster home where they could not stay much longer. The foster mother
was expecting a new baby in a matter of a few weeks and she asked for the children to be
moved. The children’s county social worker felt the chance of placing Latasha and Travis with
a relative was small. By case mining through the file two family members were discovered: the
maternal grandfather, Charles, and maternal cousin, Jessica. Jessica was overjoyed to hear
from Kinnections and was very interested in being assessed for placement of the children. Although the grandfather turned out not to be a viable placement option for the children, Jessica was assessed and approved for placement. Once this happened Kinnections began supervising visits between the children and Jessica. Travis was very excited during the visits and
enjoyed spending time with Jessica and her two boys. The weekly visits converted into unsupervised overnight visits. Latasha and Travis are now placed in Jessica's home and are doing
well.
These placements were
made possible by
Kinnections Social
Worker Temeka Fuller
featured to the right.
Kinship Support Services Program and Kinnections Initiative
Page 3
Kinnectedness Maps by Janay Swain
As the Family Tree Worker for the Kinnections Program I have the
pleasure of working with many youth to illustrate visually and vocally who their families are and the roots of where they come from.
Like a tree, I start with the child symbolizing the trunk and from there
the children take me on journey of stories of all the people who are important in their lives and I explore each relationship with them. We then
move to the limbs and branches of where they come from, which represents each and every little personality and smile I get to know when interacting with them. I have had the opportunity to learn so much about
how sharing the same blood, common skin color, eye color, or nose means to children
and youth in the foster care system.
Each map has a color key on it with several colors: Green represents people who bring out
a fertile and creative mind; Blue represents people who may or may not have a connection
with the child but share the same blood; Yellow represents the light of soul; Red represents the heart that bleeds; and, Purple is the richest color on the map.
I met with a seven year old boy who is separated from the rest of his siblings and we
started to talk about who on his Map should be represented with the color purple and he
leaned in close to me and said, “I know who I want to be purple on my map”, I looked
back at him with the same excitement he had in his eyes, and he said; “My brother and
my sisters, you know why? Because I love them and when you love someone it means
that eveeerrrryyy night you want to sleep in the same bed with them and see their
stinky faces in the morning!” During this experience I knew what he was explaining to
me was not only the love he shares and longs for with his siblings, but the connections he
feels with his brother and sister.
Lastly, I created a map with a sixteen year old girl who was shy but opened up to me and
the experience. The first person she listed on her map was her “dad”; she had purple,
green, red, yellow, blue, all the colors on the map connecting to her dad. She went on to
talk about how much she loves her dad, and how important he is in her life. I asked her if
she lived with her dad before entering foster care and she replied, “No, my dad has been
in prison for 15 yrs, but I was raised by his family.” It was amazing to me that this youth
was explaining to me how close and bonded she is to her dad who has been in jail 15 out
of the 16 years of her life. Through letters and visitation she and her dad have a close
bond and he is the most important person in her life. She also listed God on her map with
all the colors associated with the map as she is religious and holds her relationship with
God as an important one as well.
There are many other stories I can share but I think the most important thing is that I am
able to give a voice through the Kinnectedness Maps to our vulnerable children who
long for permanence and connections to the people they know and love.
Kinship Support Services Program and Kinnections Initiative
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The Relative’s Corner by Margaret Maxwell
Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself, I am Margaret Maxwell, a
mother, grandparent, and at one time, a
relative caregiver for my grandson and
his sister. This was rewarding, yet one
of the scariest experiences I faced in my
life. I wanted to make sure my grandchildren were safe but I was not prepared for
the roller coaster ride I was about to embark on.
I was a grandmother in my mid 50’s
and I had the responsibility of temporarily
raising my grandchildren until the children could go back home. I had to learn
all over again what it meant to parent
children who were six months and four
years old. This was a much different experience than having the children come
over for a weekend and being
“Grandma”. I was now responsible for
their well being and every need.
There were endless appointments and
visits that needed to be arranged, doctor’s appointments, social workers appointments, childcare appointments, bio
parent visits. At the same time, I was
also working and my job required travel.
One of the first things I had to do was to
get organized and balance caring for my
grandkids as well as myself. This started
with developing a routine that worked for
all of us. Because of my limited income,
daycare was not readily available, but I
was on the waiting list while I continued
to work. This is when I learned that a
“This was
rewarding,
yet one of
the scariest
experiences I
faced in my
life.”
Featured above is
Margaret Maxwell,
Kinnections Parent
Partner and
Support Group
Facilitator
support system and a backup plan are
very important. I developed a relationship
with the grandmother of my son’s sibling
and the two of us worked as a team to
make sure all of the children’s needs were
met. Sharing the expense of daycare and
supporting each other as we cared for the
grandchildren became our shared connection and goal.
One thing that was easy to do was to
lose sight of caring for me. Even though
the children were my first priority, I knew I
needed to take care of myself if I was going to be caring for the children long-term
so I set out to develop a routine that included time for me. Taking care of me
meant keeping my doctor’s appointments,
having a healthy diet and social outlet. I
loved these children and I honestly felt
that the best place for them was with their
Mom when she was ready and healthy
enough to care for the children.
I cared for my grandchildren for almost
a year while their Mom worked diligently
to get them back home. They went home
Christmas Eve. This was bitter sweet for
me. On the one hand, I was glad to have
them home, but I missed the pitter patter
of feet and the daily demands that I had
become accustomed to. I hope by sharing
this story, that this will be inspirational and
supportive to other caregivers who have
recently assumed the responsibility of taking care of a kinship child.
Here are a few pointers to help keep you grounded:
•
•
•
•
•
Take care of you by doing those things that will keep you emotional and physically healthy to
provide a safe and loving environment for the children
Develop a support system that will allow you to maintain some of the areas in your life that are
important to you (church, social outlets, dates etc.)
Prepare yourself for the duration of this placement (short or long term; permanent, adoption, or
guardianship)
Work as a team with the county or agency social workers; we are on the same team (we want
what’s best for the children and the family as a whole)
Team up with local kinship programs. They have a lot of resources to support the placements
(Kinnections Support Group 1st & 3rd Thursday)
Kinship Support Services Program and Kinnections Initiative
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Mark Your Calendars!!
KSSP Youth Advisory Board:
When: 2nd and 4th Friday from 4pm to 6pm
Kinnections Support Group:
When: 1st and 3rd Thursdays 10:30am to 12:30pm
Next meeting dates: January 14th and 28th
Where: KSSP Office - 6615 Valley Hi Drive
Next meeting dates: January 6th and 20th
February 3rd and 17th
Where: KSSP Office - 6615 Valley Hi Drive
KSSP/Kinnections Caregiver Advisory Board :
When: Quarterly Meetings 10am to Noon
Nurturing Parenting Program Workshops:
When: 1st and 3rd Wednesdays 11am to 1pm
Next meeting date: February 22nd
Next meeting date: January 19th
Where: KSSP Office - 6615 Valley Hi Drive
Where: Mutual Assistance Network ~
Firehouse Community Center
Guardianship Workshops:
When: Monthly 10am to Noon
Next meeting dates: January 12th and February
15th
Where: KSSP Office - 6615 Valley Hi Drive
KSSP Toy Shop
When: December 11th, 14th, 15th, 21st and 22nd
by appointment only
Contact Mallory at (916) 688-4750 to make an
appointment
More fun photos from the summer!!
Contact Information
Kinship Support Services Program
6615 Valley Hi Drive, Suite B
Sacramento, CA 95823
Phone (916) 688-4750
Fax (916) 689-4161
[email protected]
Kinship Support Services Program Staff:
Betty Low, KSSP Supervisor
Raquel Herrera, Social Worker
Liz Azevedo, KSSP Social Worker
Yvonne Gin, Social Worker
Mallory Ichikawa, Admin Assistant
Emily McDougall, FSS Counselor
Angie Banuelos, KSSP Intern
Josh Singer, FSS Counselor
Melissa Cardona, KSSP Intern
Kinnections Initiative
3555 Auburn Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95821
Phone (916) 480-6271
Fax (916) 779-0799
[email protected]
Kinnections Initiative Staff:
Tracy Hancock, Kinnections Supervisor
Josephine Jones, Kinnections Social Worker
Temeka Fuller, Kinnections Social Worker
Margaret Maxwell, Parent Liaison
Shawnta Odum, Family Kinnections Facilitator
Kati Kouklis, Administrative Assistant
Kinship Support Services Program and Kinnections Initiative
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