KinCare provides services, support and assistance specifically to grandparents and/or other relative caregivers who are acting as surrogate parents or who have custody of relative children. Services include care coordination, monthly support groups, events, back to school supplies, counseling/case management, legal assistance, parenting education and information, advocacy, and information and referral.  

There is a growing need for KinCare service in our region as we are witnessing a huge increase in the number of children being raised by their grandparents or other relatives.   There are many reasons why children are not with their biological parents such as: substance abuse by the parent(s); abuse or neglect of the child; parent(s) incarceration; parent(s) mental illness; abandonment of the child; death of parent(s); divorce of parent(s); lack of parenting skills; inability to provide care for child; illness of parent(s).  Children in the KinCare Program may be in the caregiver's home for a variety of reasons, such as:  as part of the formal foster care system (applied to be a foster parent and child is placed by Department of Social Services); in the informal foster care (placed with a relative by parent(s) or Department of Social Services); legal custody of the child has been appointed to the caregiver; or the relative child has been adopted by the relative caregiver.  If children are not part of the formal foster care system their grandparents do not receive governmental financial support for their care nor any of the other services available to foster care families.