The Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resources Center joins social services agencies across Franklin County in acknowledging Kinship Care month this September.
The name refers to families in which a caregiver is caring for a child or children who were biologically born to 
another family member or close friend. Often in kinship families, the biological parents cannot care for their children for a variety of reasons. However, they want to avoid foster care placement for their children.
CRC’s program is designed to support the entire family in creating a successful situation for the children as well as the entire family. Outreach staff members work closely with the families to understand their unique situations, and help them meet needs that especially could be negatively affecting the children.
The CRC currently has 27 families in the program and it has served 556 individuals so far in 2012. This includes caregivers and their children. It has provided a total of 729.25 service hours to these families.
The CRC also hosts a support group for kinship caregivers on the first Saturday of every month from 1 to 3 p.m.
To make a visual impact concerning the growing numbers of families utilizing kinship care, the CRC staff created miniature “paper people” which are now on display behind the Whetstone Library, 3909 N. High St. in Clintonville. Each of the 83 figures represents 100 families currently regarded as kinship care families in Franklin County, which now total 8,388.
The figures will be on display through the end of September.
For more information on the situation at the county level, visit the website:
http://www.franklincountyohio.gov/children_services/programs/kinship-care.cfm.
