Massive cuts to human services at a time when people need help more than ever

'Kinship care' programs in jeopardy
Johnston, John. Cincinnati Enquirer, July 5, 2009.

For Debbie Teague, the decision to take in her grandson and nephew was easy.

Grandson Jeremy, who is 3, "is my blood. And my (18-year-old) nephew, Joey, he's my blood, too," the 57-year-old St. Bernard resident, said. "I'm not going to let my (relatives) be put in foster care if I have the room for these kids."

When the boys' parents couldn't adequately care for them, Teague stepped in and joined the ranks of kinship care providers - those grandparents and other relatives who offer a safe home for children.

While her decision to take the children was easy, the day-to-day challenges have been difficult. So for the past year and a half, Teague has relied heavily on free services available through the kinship care program of the Children's Home of Cincinnati. It's the only such program in Hamilton County, and is funded by the county's Department of Job and Family Services.

She and other kinship care families learned about a month ago that because of budget constraints JFS will terminate the program, which costs $150,000 a year, Sept. 30.

For Teague, it's a crushing blow. "If I need help, where am I going to turn?" she said.

It's a question many more families might soon be asking as the recession forces Ohio lawmakers to consider massive budget cuts to human services at a time when people need those services more than ever. Millions of dollars could be slashed from programs that directly affect children, including kinship care.

"Any communities that have good support programs for kinship care are at risk right now," said Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, a private, non-profit association of county child welfare agencies.

Another hit ahead?
The Kinship Permanency Incentive Program, which began in 2006, supports more than 6,000 Ohio children and helps divert them from foster care by providing kinship caregivers up to $3,500 over three years as an incentive to make a legal commitment to a child.

In prior years, the $10 million program was funded with federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money. This year, Gov. Ted Strickland's initial budget zeroed out the program; lawmakers restored money in their budget proposals, but it's unclear if money will be available.

Cutting kinship programs is "a huge shame, because the number of grandparents and other relatives caring for extended families' children is growing," Allen said.

Nationally, the percentage of children under age 18 living in households headed by a grandparent is about 6 percent, double what it was 40 years ago, Census figures show. In Ohio, 86,000 grandparents are responsible for grandchildren living with them. In Kentucky, the number is 36,000.

Grandparents and other relatives often step in to raise children when parents struggle with issues that include substance abuse, mental illness, divorce, domestic violence, incarceration and economic hardship, the Children's Home says.

Its kinship care program has served 616 families the past four years, said Mike Robinson, manager of specialized treatment services. Most of those families are headed by grandparents, although some children are being raised by great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles or even older siblings. Most of the families are at or below poverty level.

Social workers assess families' needs, link them to community services, and meet with them regularly. Monthly workshops for caregivers cover topics such as advocating for children in school and handling finances. A monthly support group, which includes transportation, child care and a meal, puts caregivers in touch with others in similar situations.

Program a boost to some
It's a huge boost "just to talk to somebody who's going through what I'm going through. You need somebody," said Diana Hill, 53, of Northside.

She is raising her 3-year-old great-niece, Tulip, and a 13-year-old grandson, Troysean. Another grandson, who is 17, lived with her for 16 years but recently moved back with his mother. Hill says all were in difficult home situations and would have ended up in the foster care system if she had not stepped up.

"It wasn't easy at all. I needed some help. I needed some doors opened for me," she said.

David Lenning, a licensed social worker and one of two kinship care coordinators at the Children's Home, attended school meetings with her, helped her get clothes and diapers, and assisted her in getting legal custody of Tulip.

For Teague, who can't read or write, navigating through red tape is even more difficult. Her problems were compounded last year when she got sick with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had to quit her job as a seamstress.

Licensed social worker Jenny Carman, the Children's Home's other kinship care coordinator, works with her.

"If it wasn't for Jenny going with me to the food stamp office, going with me to get medical cards, helping me get my grandson into day care, I couldn't have done it," Teague said. "She went everywhere with me to fill out papers."

Teague worries what will become of her family once the kinship care program ends. The divorced woman also cares for Joseph, 17, a non-relative whom she adopted last year after several years as his foster mother.

Brian Gregg, spokesman for Hamilton County Job and Family Services, said: "In these economic times, as our budget is cut and we are forced to prioritize, we have to make tough decisions that result in good programs being lost."

Robinson, of the Children's home, said the kinship care program has kept "literally hundreds of kids out of state custody."

But Gregg said his agency doesn't expect to see more children going into foster care once the program ends.

Kinship caregivers can still receive Ohio Works First cash assistance and Medicaid, regardless of income, he said. Food stamps and child care might also be available, depending on income. And if Children's Services has placed a child into a kinship situation, the caregivers can become licensed foster parents or adoptive parents and receive financial assistance, he said.

One thing everyone agrees on: Children who are cared for by relatives generally fare better than those in foster care.

"When kids go into foster care they lose everything - their family, their siblings, their clothes, their pets, their neighborhood, their school. That's much less likely to happen when they go into relative care," Robinson said.

For Hill and Teague, who have sacrificed in order to care for family members in their homes, there are no regrets, even as new challenges await.

"It's heartbreaking," Teague said of the impending loss of the kinship care program. "I don't know where I'm going to go now, or how I'm going to do it."