Family Voices United launches regular "Share Your Perspective" questions on timely topics relating to child welfare. This new paper asks experts with lived experience across the country, "What are the positive outcomes of placing youth in Kinship care?"
Lived Experience Experts identified the following priorities in response to the question:
1. Kinship care can provide children with the opportunity to stay connected to their family and cultural heritage, which can be an important factor in their overall well-being. By living with relatives or family friends, children in kinship care may have access to a support system that can help them navigate the challenges of the foster care system.
2. Studies have shown that children in kinship care are more likely to have longer-lasting placements and a stronger connection to their community and culture. This can be especially important for children who have experienced trauma or other difficulties, as kinship care can provide a sense of stability and security.
3. Kinship care can help reunify children with their parents, prevent abandonment issues, and reduce the chances of re-entering foster care. By providing a supportive and nurturing environment, kinship caregivers can help children to maintain important relationships with their parents and other family members.
4. Kinship care can provide a natural and supportive environment that can help them to develop a strong sense of cultural identity and maintain placement in a stable home. By living with relatives or family friends, children in kinship care may be better able to maintain a sense of continuity and stability in their lives.
Please click below to access the full paper and read quotes from young people with experience in foster care, birth parents, kinship and relative caregivers, and foster/ resource and adoptive parents.
