Resource Library

Demonstrates the dedication and flexibility needed when providing kinship care in order to navigate things like visitation, schedules, foster care certification process, and permanency proceedings. In this video, kinship parents discuss coming from an empty nest and readjusting to the parenting role, the valuable assistance they received in the process of becoming certified foster parents, and the necessity of respite provided by family and friends.

Emphasizes the necessity of strong community supports to ceate a secure and stable enviroment for a new kinship family. In this video, a grandparent discusses moving acorss the country to ensure her grandchildren could their parents. She also discusses the resources and support networks that helped her become an effective kinship parent and that helped her granddaughters thrive, including their faith community, the children’s former foster parents, and other community members.

Addresses motivations for becoming a kinship parent and the importance of having agency guidance and support to navigate shifting family roles and dynamics. This video presents one family’s transition from kinship care to adoption and highlights resources that contributed to their success and their ability to provide permanency for their adoptive daughter.

Illustrates the changes parents face when they decide to provide full-time care for their relative children and the benefits of different types of agency support. In this video, a kinship and adoptive parent discusses strategies she used to successfully provide stability for the children in her growing family and the importance of having agency resources to accomodate her changing family needs.

Highlights the rewards and challenges of providing permanency and stability for relative children with differing needs. In this video, a single grandparent of five discusses her epxerience becoming a kinship careviger, foster parent and then legal guardian for her daughter’s children; support the caseworker provided for her to become a certified foster parent; and the joy of watching her grandchildren thrive.

Spotlights how agency support and resources helped one kinship family identify creative solutions to challenges they faced. In this video, a parent reflects on her family’s experience with the kinship program and how it enabled her to connect and collaborate with her kinship son’s biological family.

Shares insight from Judge William Thorne, who is a member of the Pomo and Coast Miwok Indian tribes and was a tribal court judge in 12 states, a trial judge for the state of Utah, and a judge on the Utah Court of Appeals. Judge Thorne reflects on federal policies that have had an impact on American Indian children, families and culture. Judge Thorne touches on how life on a reservation differs from life in mainstream American, the unique ways that American Indian tribes are addressing community issues, and what today’s American Indian children need to thrive.

Synthesizes past knowledge and provides research from eight states and from national data on the extent of adopted children re-entering foster care, the circumstances involved in both foster care re-entry and adoption dissolutions, and the significant number of children adopted from foster care who require ongoing mental health services.

Provides an overview of research on children’s adjustment to adoption, reasons for adoption instability, and the significant need for post-adoption support. Includes recommendations to enhance post-adoption services.

A compilation of FAQs about kinship adoption