A Sacramento County program that offers support to relatives who take abused or neglected children into their home was honored May 6 by the statewide Foster Care Month Alliance.
The Kinship Support Services Program (KSSP), a partnership between the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services and Lilliput Children’s Services, was honored at the annual Foster Care Month event at the state Capitol.
KSSP Team members honored at the May 6 event were:
· Terry Clauser and Romeal Samuel, Sacramento County Child Protective Services;
· Karen Alvord and Beverly Johnson, Lilliput Children’s Services; and
· Mauricio and Ruth Ocon, grandparents who have custody of their four grandchildren.
The kinship program was created in 2007 to help relatives who are raising family member’s children. The program, with centers in north and south Sacramento, s offer support groups, fun activities for kids, referrals to low-cost legal help, and other services.
The goals are to keep children out of the foster care system by supporting extended family members. For children already in foster care, the goal is to help them stay put with safe, appropriate relatives.
Relatives are the first choice when CPS must remove children from a home for their own protection. Staying with extended family is less traumatic to children and makes it less likely they will have to change schools or move out of familiar neighborhoods.
Almost 40 percent of the county’s 4000 foster children live with relatives in formal foster care arrangements. But many family members care for related children who are not in the system. Approximately 10,000 people living in Sacramento County identified themselves as relative caregivers in the 2000 U.S. Census.
The Capitol event kicked off nearly 50 activities statewide – all intended to increase awareness about foster care and the many reforms underway to improve it.
