They Call Me Momma:
Relatives Raising Children

Part 7

Aired October 22, 2001

Latest census figures show there are eight times the number of children in grandparent-headed households than in the foster care system. While advocates of kinship care continue to push for increased government assistance, some private organizations are striving to build a stronger sense of community. As our in-depth series on kinship care, "They Call Me Momma," resumes this morning, 90.3 WCPN®'s Renita Jablonski introduces us to two agencies in northeast Ohio that are working to strengthen family ties.

Renita Jablonski–It's time for this month's grandparent support group at Fairhill Center for Aging. A group of about 15 older men and women are coming together to hear each other's stories, to help one another deal with problems they're having as they struggle with becoming a parent all over again. Fairhill is a non-profit agency that houses more than 20 organizations that provide various educational, health and consumer services to senior citizens. This support group for kinship caregivers is a branch of the center's Intergenerational Resource Center, created after a recommendation from the Federation for Community Planning. Pam Fioritto is Assistant Director of the I.R.C. Fioritto says soon after its inception in 1994, kinship caregivers were recognized as an important target population.

Pam Fioritto–Our role here at Intergenerational Resource Center is to bring the generations together and obviously kinship caregivers are in the same boat. There may be a leap of one generation or two where those generations are having to come together to reach out to each other to build family and to build caring and to maintain family, that's the whole other issue here. Rather than going to foster care these children are able to stay and learn who there extended family members are.

RJ–Seven years ago, in an effort to contact possible participants, Fairhill sent mailings out to kinship caregivers that had been identified through a county survey. Jane Outcalt, director of the I.R.C., says soon after, the grandparent support group met for the very first time with great success.

Jane Outcalt–We met in 1995 and there were 12 people there. 12 kinship caregivers and they were women who were absolutely amazed to see that there were other people raising their grandchildren. They didn't know, you know, they sort of thought that they were alone in the world.

RJ–Fairhill's kinship program reaches beyond the support group. Recreational activities that provide both educational and therapeutic elements are also a major part of the program.

JO–Then we would have field trips where we'd go to the Achievement Center For Children, we'd go to the Free Clinic, we'd go to Rap Art, we'd introduce the different agencies in the community that could perhaps help the kinship caregivers.

So there were therapy sessions with titles like RESPECT and how to get the generations to communicate and just looking at those sorts of issues.

RJ–Lucy Mallory is an elderly Cleveland resident raising three of her great-nieces and one great-nephew. She just heard about the kinship-based programs at the center during a doctor's visit in Fairhill's main building.

Lucy Mallory–My doctor upstairs said just, told me to come down here and try to join the support group because everybody have problems and maybe I can get some kind of results you know, by talking to somebody.

RJ–Bernice Harris greets Mallory. Harris is the facilitator of the Grandparent Support Group at Fairhill. She's a caregiver too. Harris has been raising her 9-year old great-granddaughter since she was three days old. She nods her head often as she listens to Mallory's story and takes notes.

Bernice Harris–What I will try to do is look at her because she just came to me today. What I'll do, I got the information, I'll look at what I have, then I'll start calling some of the other grandparents, some of the other organizations and see what we can do to help her.

RJ–This is not Lucy Mallory's first experience with a kinship care program run by a non-profit private agency. For the last few years, she's been taking her great-nieces and nephew to Saint Martin De Porres Family Center on Cleveland's eastside.

LM–They take them on activities, and they got sports right there, you know?

RJ–Martin De Porres is an organization of Catholic Charities. Director Marsha Blanks came to the center in 1994 with a background in gerontology. Blanks says she was already aware of many older individuals who were put into a parenting role, but it wasn't until she came to Martin De Porres that she saw the flip side:

Marsha Blanks–The children who were being affected. At this point in time it became real real to us what children are facing when they move in with relatives. And we found a real need to integrate those children into the other activities that we're having and to make them feel good about their family situation.

RJ–Martin De Porres's kinship program is called, "Grandcaring Supportive Services." Like the program at Fairhill, it works to promote intergenerational links between caregivers and children - offering activities to both groups individually as well as together. Pam Fiorrito says that's what separates the private sector from the public sector when it comes to kinship care.

PF–What grandparents are really looking for there is financial support, medical insurance, legal support, whatever they need to get the child into school, into healthcare. What the non-profit agencies can do is form a community of like-minded families who have similar issues that they're facing, similar challenges and to have those family members come together in community.

RJ–Lucy Mallory points out another difference. She says she simply feels more comfortable coming to places like Saint Martin De Porres and Fairhill Center than having to deal with workers in county-based agencies. Both organizations plan on further developing their kinship care programs Fairhill says one of its next projects will be setting up a school for relative caregivers. In Cleveland, Renita Jablonski, 90.3 WCPN® News.