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S.Graham presentation given at the 2012 South Carolina Home Visiting Summit
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Families Come in all
Shapes & Sizes…
Serving Non-Traditional Families
Susan Graham, Program SpecialistEarly Steps to School SuccessSave the Children
David Laird, Dir. Of Policy & Gov’t AffairsChildren’s Trust of South Carolina
Objectives• Define non-traditional families
• Identify family strengths and challenges
• Identify possible impact on development
• Identify strategies that build relationships to empower each family
When you think about “family structure” what is your familiar framework?
What trends do you see in family structure and how it changing?
Family… A healthy family is one that provides for
basic needs such as food, shelter and economic support.
Beyond the basics, family provides love, affection, a sense of identity, and a sense of belonging.
Families also provide a worldview or a spiritual belief that can help make sense of the world, as well as rules and boundaries for appropriate behavior and skills for dealing with the world.
Rare, if not, gone…
Non-traditional Family Definition:
”Two or more people in a relationship that is not recognized either by the federal or
state government as a marital relationship.”
Single parenting….
Single moms Single dads
Same sex parenting….
Sisters living with mom…
Blended families…..
• Projections are that 1 out of 10 children will go through two divorces before they are 16 years old.
Kinship Care in U.S. 2.7 million children living in extended
families; 54,000 of these are in South Carolina; 18% increase over the past decade. 1 of every 4 children (104,000) in foster
care are living with their relatives. 1 in 11 children live in kinship for at
least three months prior to 18th birthday. 1 in 5 African-American children live in
kinship care situations.
Kinship Caregivers are more likely to…
Face economic hardships Single Older Have less education Be unemployed.
Your Non-traditional Family…
Think of the families you serve…
Hold in your mind a family that is not the old fashioned, typical, family with a mother, father and child(ren) all living together…
Write down this family and all the people you interact with in this house…
Strengths and challenges Write down 2 strengths of this family.
Think about their latest assessment of risks or resources.
Now think about a challenge of working with this family…
Strategies Use your Windows on Learning handout
to list some of the strategies that are shared by your colleagues…
Work or school…scheduling?
When and Where to visit?
Share ideas for making your visits work with these families…
How do you overcome barriers?
For working or teen parents, how do you offer flexibility?
Gatekeepers…
Grandmothers are…
How important are the grandmothers?
How do we build a relationship with them?
Friend or Foe?
Grandmas read too…
Powerful Influence These grandmothers are a very
influential part of the family…
Share your successes in forming bonds with them that enhance impact of programming…
Kinship Care Benefits…..
• Keeping Families Together
• Benefiting Children
• Utilizing and Preserving Cultural Values
Honor through listening
Some proven strategies:
Follow the child…
Find strengths and embrace family structure.
Coordinate HV with other care in child’s life.
Use open ended questions and reflective listening.
Opportunities to strengthen Kinship in South Carolina Provide greater financial stability for kin families
Reorganize TANF
Strengthen Kinship families involved in child welfare system Fostering Connections Title IV-E Waivers
Strengthen other community-based responses for kin families Housing Health Care Affordable legal representation
Primary caregivers?
Love and hope
They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Follow Up Activity: Choose a strategy to enhance the family
that you chose today.
Try that strategy with the family over the next month.
Share the results with a colleague…
Contacts:Susan D. GrahamProgram Specialist Early Steps to School SuccessSave the Childrenc-(803) 528-4935W-(803) 739-0602; ext. [email protected]
David M. LairdDirector of Policy & Gov’t AffairsChildren’s Trust of SCW-(803) 744-4047C- (202) 446-8809
