Family First
Materials

Kinship Care

Kinship Champion Curriculum:

• Bringing Family to the Table: Tips and Techniques for Effective Family Engagement
  Child Trends article that provides tips and methods for engaging family members and fictive kin in planning for a child in the foster system.
• Creating Culture Change
  Best practices for kinship champions that support positive culture change.
• Family Find and Engagement
  This document created by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families details the process for re-establishing family connections between children in out-of-home care and their relatives.
• Family Resource Form
  This form created by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law is an example of how to collect information about family resources.
• Grandfamilies: Strengths and Challenges
  A summary about grandparent caregivers created by Generations United.
• Icebreaker Meeting Overview
  Created by Annie E. Casey Foundation, this overview describes the purpose of having a facilitated conversation between parents and resource parents to explore a child’s needs.
• Kinship Resources
  A list of national and state resources to support kinship care.
• More About Family Finding
  An overview of the Family Finding model and its essential components.
• Piecing Together the Puzzle: Tips and Techniques for Effective Discovery in Family Finding
  Child Trend article that provides tips and methods for finding and engaging family members in planning for a relative child in foster care.
• Relative/Suitable Other Safety Assessment (Template)
  Sample tool created by Onondaga County.
• What is a Kinship Champion?
  Describes the role of the Kinship Champion in helping families make informed choices about kin caregiving.
• Working with Kin Caregivers — Unique Considerations
  Created by Annie E. Casey Foundation, and based on the work of Dr. Joseph Crumbley, this overview covers the emotional and relational considerations for kin caregivers.

Other Kinship Materials:

• ABA Kin Options Chart: Custody vs. Foster Care
  This chart created by the American Bar Association compares kin custody vs. kinship foster care with regards to the legal, familial, educational and other benefits and responsibilities.
• ABA Kin Options Chart: KinGAP vs. Adoption
  This chart created by the American Bar Association compares kinship guardianship (KinGAP) vs. adoption with regards to the legal, familial, educational and other benefits and responsibilities.
• Creative Supports for Kinship Placements: Including Flex Funds In Your Kinship Firewall Policy
  This issue brief describes options for integrating the use of flexible funds into an LDSS’s kin-first firewall policy to support the immediate needs of kinship caregivers. The brief also provides a proposed process, helpful tips, and examples of the flex-funds approaches used by different jurisdictions
• Financial Support for Kin Caregivers Comparison Chart
  This chart created by the American Bar Association shows various financial supports available to New York State kin caregivers based on their guardianship arrangement.
• Kinship Options: Benefits, Rights and Responsibilities (Template)
  A customizable template with information on benefits, rights, and responsibilities of kin caregivers in Article 10, Article 6 and kinship foster care arrangements.
• Kinship Process Mapping Tool
  This toolkit provides instructions on how to assess potential barriers to effective kinship foster care training, certification, and support.
• Kinship Specialist/Navigator Job Description
  The Kinship Specialist/Navigator serves as a resource for families by addressing their needs and assessing the impact of specific programming, systems, policies, and procedures.
• Onondaga Kinship Policy
  Example that describes the district policies designed to create a kin-first culture to reduce congregate care and increase the use of kinship placements and permanency.
• New York State Kinship Policy (Template)
  Kinship Policy and Best Practices Template, finalized in December 2020 by the ABA Center on Children and the Law New York State.
• Finding Family and Beyond: Supporting Kinship Families for Success
  (Video) (Slideshow)
  This session discusses core components of successful kinship supports, featuring lessons learned from two county jurisdictions.
• NY Leaders Are Putting Families First (Video)
  New York leaders discuss strategies their districts have used to reduce congregate care and increase certified kinship care placements when children need foster care.
• Placement Requirements Waiver Form
  A sample form from Connecticut used to request a waiver for typical foster home requirements to facilitate kinship placements and reduce barriers to kinship certification.
• Foster and Kinship Parent Recruitment and Support Best Practice Inventory
  A tool based on consensus findings from the field about the key steps for identifying, recruiting, training, and retaining quality kin and non-kin foster parents.
• Peer Supports for Kinship and Foster Parents (Video)
  This learning session shares best practices for providing peer support to foster parents to improve retention and achieve other positive outcomes. Highlights the partnership between Dutchess County LDSS and Fostering Hope Together to support foster parents in their district.
• Promising Program Models that Prevent and Respond to Crises in Family-Based Settings
  This resource provides an overview of best practices in community crisis response, crisis response training for foster and kinship families, and family support models with embedded crisis response.