Kinship

The Kinship Support Services Program helps strengthen families of individuals who are raising children of their extended family by providing them with information, community resources, education, and other services related to their needs. Through kinship placements, families are maintained, traditions upheld, children move less and experience fewer behavioral, educational and/or health problems.

San Bernardino County’s Kinship Support Services Program is a collaborative between the Department of Children and Family Services (CFS) and not-for-profit organizations serving the central, West End and High Desert regions of the County. The program provides a variety of support services to kinship families, ranging from great-grandmothers raising their great-grandchildren, to older siblings raising their brothers and sisters. Services are designed to combat the isolation, stress, and needs kinship families encounter in their day-to-day lives, and include support groups, parenting classes, informational workshops, caregiver respite, children’s activities, and family recreation. Additional services are developed in response to caregiver and kin-child needs.

The Kinship Support Services Program is funded by a combination of State, Federal and foundation grants. The Kinship Advisory Council, established in 2001, meets monthly to helps direct local kinship policy and procedures. Council membership includes community stakeholders, relative caregivers and representatives from local government and community-based agencies.

Kinship Services

• Support Groups
• Information/Referral to legal services, health care, tutoring, other
• Recreational Activities
• Day Care (for Kinship-related activities)
• Respite
• Transportation to/from kinship-related activities*
  • Van is not handicapped accessible
•  Individual/Group Counseling

Program Eligibility

• Relatives who are legal guardians of kin-children
• Relatives who adopt kin-children
• Relatives who have kin-children on a voluntary/informal basis
• Relatives who have kin-children placed with them by Children and Family Services
• Non-Related Extended Family Members (NREFM) who are raising children of a close family friend.