September Kids Are Waiting E-Alert
Celebrate Grandparents Day by Urging Congress to Support Relative Caregivers
Every child needs a safe, permanent family to help them grow and flourish. Grandparents and other relatives can be an important resource to provide permanent homes for thousands of children in foster care – but they need the same supports any other foster family gets. Common-sense reforms in Congress could help make this happen – if you add your voice to call for change.
In honor of Grandparents Day (September 9) call your senators and representative and ask for their support of the bipartisan Kinship Caregiver Support Act (S.661/HR 2188). (Easy to do, see the toll-free number below!) This federal legislation would help the more than 124,000 children – 1 out of every 4 in foster care – who live with grandparents or other relatives. The bill would enable those relatives to become permanent guardians while maintaining crucial financial and social services support for things like medical visits, food, school clothes, and educational tutoring.
Research has shown that children who live with relatives are as safe, if not safer, than children placed in non-relative homes; that they are more likely to remain with their siblings and attend familiar schools; and that they are less likely to experience the multiple moves and uncertainty all too common to many youth in foster care.
Please help make a real difference in the life of a child in foster care by participating in this national call-in event in honor of grandparents! It will just take a few minutes of your time. More details below!
Call In information: Support Grandparents And Children In Foster Care
Call toll free, (888) 226-0627* from Monday, September 10 through Friday, September 14th. You will be connected to the U.S. Capitol Switchboard. Ask to be connected to the office of your Senators and Representative. Not sure who they are? Ask the Switchboard Operator, or visit www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.
Message: "I urge Senator/Representative __________ to help grandparents and the children they care for by co-sponsoring the bipartisan Kinship Caregiver Support Act [S. 661 in the Senate; H.R. 2188 in the House of Representatives]. Children need safe and stable families. Thank you."
Mark your calendars for a briefing on September 19!
Generations United to host briefing and release new report on relative guardians with information about Latino caregiversOn Wednesday, September 19th at 4:30p.m.on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Generations United will release a Spanish language report on relative caregivers in the United States. The report, titled Every Child Deserves a Permanent Family: Subsidized Guardianship as a Common Sense Solution for Children in Long-Term Relative Foster Care will contain new data on Latino grandparents and other relatives caring for children in the foster care system. The event Una Famila para Cada Nino: Supporting Permanent Families for Latino Children in Foster Care will include remarks from Representative Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Latino caregivers and youth, and is being co-sponsored by Generations United and Kids Are Waiting. To attend this event RSVP to: Vicki Bolton at Generations United, at vbolton@gu.org or 202-289-3979.
