Network Impact

The Exemplary Practice designation and technical assistance helped us emphasize  our commitment to excellence and share best practices with community partners, kinship families, funders, and more.

Arcelia Armstrong, Caregiver Support & Kinship Navigator Program Director, The Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio, Inc. (AOoA)’s Kinship Navigator Program

The Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio, Inc. (AOoA)’s Kinship Navigator Program helps grandparents and relatives care better and longer for the children they raise. In 2024, the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network designated them an Exemplary Program, which, as Caregiver Support & Kinship Navigator Program Director Arcelia Armstrong shared, the designation and technical assistance helped them emphasize their commitment to excellence and share best practices with community partners, kinship families, funders, and more. Of note: the designation helped the program secure funding, improve services, and increase reach. 

Specifically, the Network provided technical assistance to the AOoA of Northwestern Ohio, which had ripple effects. The AoOA of Northwestern Ohio’s Kinship Program provided ideas to Washington Association of Area Agencies on Aging (W4A) on how they could build partnerships to most efficiently reach and serve kinship families in the face of limited staff resources, as W4A has just one full-time employee. Arcelia and her colleague Martha were keynote speakers at AgeGuide Northeastern Illinois’s seminar Kinship Care: Supporting Families Through Collaboration, where they shared their best practices with attendees and a panel of experts, which included representatives from the Illinois Department on Aging, State Representative Natalie Manley, Illinois Department of Child & Family Services, and others. 

Finally, Arcelia believes that the designation helped give them the credibility they needed to secure opioid settlement funds in the form of a two-year grant that will help them serve an additional 240 kin caregivers (120 per year) via support groups, for example. They will also be able to use the grant to create educational resources – a podcast and Empowering Kinship Families: Resources for Opioid Recovery and Prevention, a publication that will be distributed at intake and outreach events.

The way they show up—it’s hands-on, thoughtful, personal…They really took the time to get to know our program, recognized our strengths, and offered ideas to make our services even better. They gently push us to dream bigger. They’re like wonder women.

Alyssa Craven , Director, GRANDfamilies Kinship Care program at the Children’s Service Society (CSS) of Utah

Alyssa Craven directs the GRANDfamilies Kinship Care program at the Children’s Service Society (CSS) of Utah, the only kin-serving program in the state. It started in 2002 in response to the need to support the growing number of grandfamilies across the state. 

For the past 3.5 years, Alyssa has tapped into the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network for technical assistance, and she regularly attends their webinars and reads the newsletter. 

So, at first, names like Ana, Shalah, and Kylee were just names on a screen or in her email inbox. But that changed quickly. “The way they show up—it’s hands-on, thoughtful, personal,” Alyssa reflects. She explained that the Network doesn’t just support the program’s work. They believe in it. She saw this first-hand when Network team members visited her organization in 2023 when CSS’s GRANDfamilies Kinship Care program was designated an Exemplary Program. “They spent time with our community partners, families, and staff. They really took the time to get to know our program, recognized our strengths, and offered ideas to make our services even better.”  

The most transformative moment came when the Network encouraged her to implement something she hadn’t yet considered: incorporating those with lived experiences into their programming and curriculum. With the Network’s guidance, Alyssa welcomed a kinship caregiver to co-facilitate her program’s 10-week psychoeducational course. The change was immediate—and deep. In just the first week, caregivers opened up and real conversations happened–much more quickly than they had before.

Today, when Alyssa has tough questions—like how to help caregivers facing legal risks —the Network responds quickly, connects her with others, and shares relevant resources and toolkits. “They gently push us to dream bigger. They’re like wonder women,” she shared. “Every single one of them.”

They do for us what we aspire to do for our family resource centers—listening to what we need, pointing us to best practices, and giving us the confidence that our next steps are going to be based on what works.

Joan Witherspoon-Norris, Executive Director, Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers

When the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers (ANFRC) began recognizing the unique challenges facing kinship families, Executive Director Joan Witherspoon-Norris knew she needed expert guidance. ANFRC had long served multi-generational households, but resources tailored to their needs were scarce. For example, housing instability and barriers to accessing TANF benefits emerged as pressing issues.

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network became an invaluable partner, offering research, resources, and expertise. They facilitated connections to similar organizations in other states and key stakeholders in Alabama that helped ANFRC begin developing more targeted support for these kinship families

“They are the best,” Joan said. “They do for us what we aspire to do for our family resource centers—listening to what we need, pointing us to best practices, and giving us the confidence that our next steps are going to be based on what works.”

From the very start, the Network’s efficiency, expertise, and responsiveness stood out. Gentale Hankins, Director of Program Development, joined the organization in October 2024 to, in part, specifically build their services for kinship families. She drew on her lived experience as a kinship caregiver and her professional background in social work to engage deeply with the Network’s webinars, publications, and workgroups. The Network formed a TANF policy workgroup, which Gentale joined, and it provided her with a broader view of the systemic barriers affecting kinship families across the country and practical strategies for addressing them.

“Anything I could think of—educational resources, grants, policy information—they had it,” Gentale recalled. “I didn’t have to look far to find what I needed to help us collect resources and navigate all these moving parts.” ANFRC could easily adapt resources to fit Alabama’s context, giving local organizations concrete tools to share with families.

Joan emphasized that they are able to better serve kinship families because of the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama, which provides critical funding and deep knowledge about the prevention of child maltreatment ; and the Network, which provides expertise and connections. “Without them, we simply couldn’t be engaged in this work,” she said.

One of the most impactful moments came when the Network convened a learning collaborative with ANFRC, the Alabama Department of Human Resources (Child Protective Services), and the Children’s Trust Fund. This simple yet intentional connection allowed ANFRC to build a strong relationship with the state’s kinship care division, paving the way for collaboration, trust, and shared learning. “Whatever magic the Network did, it worked,” Joan said. “It changed our trajectory.”

Today, both women credit the Network with accelerating their progress, expanding their vision, and connecting them to peers and models nationwide. “They’re efficient and incredibly knowledgeable. They don’t just send canned emails. Every bit of advice they give is personalized to our needs,” Gentale said. “It’s amazing to work with people who genuinely listen, respond, and help you move forward.”

While ANFRC’s kinship work is still in the early stages, Joan and Gentale see this as the start of a long, intentional journey to better serve Alabama’s kinship families—one they are determined to continue with the guidance of trusted national experts at the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network and the support of the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama.

The team’s work was thorough, in-depth, professional, and backed by a true understanding of our population.

Barb Kempf, LMSW, President of Family Programs, Foster Adopt Connect

A group of foster parents started Foster Adopt Connect in 2000 as a way to support each other. Now, 25 years later, the organization has grown to include 300 staff who deliver more than 20 programs in Kansas and Missouri. Foster Adopt Connect works with children, youth, and families as they navigate the complexities of the child welfare system. 

Foster Adopt Connect partners with grandfamilies – families in which a child is being raised by a relative or family friend and who are not in the foster care system. Because of their breadth of services, the organization is able to partner with families throughout their journeys, offering a continuum of care from prevention to behavior intervention, depending on the families’ needs. 

In 2019, Foster Adopt Connect designed a model for one of its newest programs: Kinship Navigator program, which offers one-on-one support to caregivers who unexpectedly take on caring for a loved one, and a few years later, contacted the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network for guidance on their program design. Barb Kempf, LMSW, President of Family Programs and lifelong child welfare professional, sent the Network “absolutely everything” to be reviewed and help them identify program model gaps and considerations for improvement. In return, a team of Network staff provided an analysis and recommendations, which they walked through with Barb and others at Foster Adopt Connect. 

Barb explained that the Network made recommendations that changed the way the program would serve families and enhanced many aspects of it. “The team’s work was thorough, in-depth, professional, and backed by a true understanding of our population,” Barb said. For example, the model was designed to survey families at the end of their time of working with the Kinship Navigator Program, and now they survey families within three weeks of working with them, which helps them refine services during their time together. 

While Foster Adopt Connect no longer receives direct technical assistance from the Network, Barb shared what still stands out: the Network’s ability to truly know their organization. More than a year after working together, Network staff continue to reach out to Barb to share resources, connect other programs to them, alert them of things they need to know coming down the pike. “We’ve never gotten lost among all that they do and all who they work with.” 

That’s when I turned to the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network, which helped us take our ideas and turn them into action.

Dr. Kathy L. Dial, Founder, Kids, Kin ‘n Caregivers Inc

With more than two decades of experience in social work, Dr. Kathy L. Dial has dedicated her career to serving kinship families. In 2017, she launched Kids, Kin ‘n Caregivers Inc. a small, hybrid for-profit and nonprofit organization committed to supporting families, improving support systems, and equipping professionals to respond more effectively to the needs of kinship caregivers. 

But even for someone as experienced and driven as Dr. Dial, systems change doesn’t happen in isolation. 

“For years, I had been part of a statewide task force on kinship care in Virginia. After it dissolved, a colleague and I felt the gap and wanted to bring it back,” Dr. Dial shared. 

“That’s when I turned to the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network, which helped us take our ideas and turn them into action.” What began as a desire to restart Virginia’s kinship care convenings grew into a robust and sustainable collaboration—grounded in best practices and strengthened by shared learning across states.

Laying the Foundation for Systems Change

The Network provided technical assistance that proved critical to launching and growing the Virginia Kinship Convening Group, a monthly forum that brings together public agencies and community-based organizations to share updates, surface challenges, and align on emerging policy and program opportunities. 

“The Network team helped us connect to other states doing similar work. They even created a grid that showed how different convening groups were structured and funded—it became the foundation we used to build our own group,” said Dr. Dial.

The Convening Group now includes 30 organizations, with 12–15 regularly participating each month, and it has already influenced state policy: a representative from the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) who regularly attended meetings was inspired to revise a respite care policy, making kinship caregivers newly eligible for critical supports.

Strengthening the Work from the Inside Out

Dr. Dial and her organization have also received targeted support to improve internal capacity at Kids, Kin ‘n Caregivers Inc. “The Network gives us the information we need to strengthen our policies, practices, and procedures,” said Dr. Dial. “They’re experts who are just far enough removed from our local work to give us an outside perspective—and that’s invaluable.”

She now turns to the Network regularly—attending webinars, emailing questions, and staying current on national trends and funding streams. “If I have a question about anything related to kinship families, I know where to go. The answers are there.”

From questions about launching as an independent nonprofit to designing our model, managing referrals, and evaluating the program, the Network could answer absolutely every question I had.

Holly Handler, Co-Founder, Kin Support Program – Haa Yaitx’u Saiani

Holly Handler has been a child welfare attorney, public defender, and supervising attorney for Alaska Legal Services, and she has handled many legal cases under the Indian Child Welfare Act. 

In 2023, Holly sought support from the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network to help her and her business partners open the Kin Support Program – Haa Yaitx’u Saiani, out of their desire to serve grandparents and other family members struggling to care for young relatives outside the foster care system. 

She credits the Network with helping her bring her idea to reality in 2023. She shared, “From questions about launching as an independent nonprofit to designing our model, managing referrals, and evaluating the program, the Network could answer absolutely every question I had. They put me in touch with other small, independent programs like the one we were hoping to build so we could leverage their best practices. I had an extraordinary counseling session with one of the subject-matter experts Dr. Angelique Day who helped us begin to design our program evaluation.” 

With the Network’s dedicated, personal support, as well as its resources via newsletters and webinars, Holly’s team was able to open the Program’s doors in July 2024. Since that time, the Program’s two family specialists, kin attorney, and contracted parent attorney have together served 35 families. 

In the near future, Holly hopes to see Alaska fund an array of programs and services that help keep kids with their kin, as well as finalize a state prevention plan, as Alaska is one of four in the nation that does not yet have one. She’d like to see the Kin Support Program be a best-in-class example of the power of offering preventative services and helping kids stay with kin, as research shows when children cannot stay with their parents, they have the best life outcomes if they are able to stay with relatives (instead of non-kin). 

They take such a human approach. You can feel how much they care. They bring people together so we’re not competing, but learning from each other. We’re all on the same team.

Angela Tobin, Founder, Kinship Caregivers Connect

When Angela Tobin started Kinship Caregivers Connect in June 2020, she was still a student, fueled by a fellowship and $3,000 grant at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her lived experience with kinship care, combined with her background in occupational therapy and educational psychology, sparked something much bigger than she could have imagined at the time.

“It started with one support group,” Angela shared. “My parents- who are kinship caregivers- even came to the first meeting because I was scared no one else would show up.” But people did show up. And they kept showing up.

Now, the Ohio-based Kinship Caregivers Connect has grown into a thriving statewide community. They’ve served 300 kinship caregivers, see about 25 caregivers in any given week in their weekly support groups, and have a growing network of interdisciplinary guest speakers from the community. Their online model—once a hesitant experiment—proved to be the perfect format: flexible, accessible, and rich in connection. From trauma-informed care and legal guardianship to caring for children with disabilities, the discussions are as diverse as the caregivers who attend.

This growth was made possible, in part, because Angela sought support of the Network, which invited Kinship Caregivers Connect into a pilot program for grassroots organizations focused on building sustainability. The Network was able to provide tailored technical assistance, individual coaching and group support from Tiffany Allen, who specializes in supporting smaller organizations, to Angela and three other leaders—what Angela describes as part support group, part masterclass that helped her be part of a community and gain skills to build her organization.

Angela never misses a Network newsletter, attends many webinars, and accesses resources, but when asked what has been most meaningful to her, she said, without hesitation: “A sense of community in the kinship world. They take such a human approach. You can feel how much they care. They bring people together so we’re not competing, but learning from each other. We’re all on the same team.”