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Are you raising someone else’s children? In some Milwaukee neighborhoods as many as 20% of children are raised by someone other than a parent.  According to a recent national study co-authored by Meredith Minkler of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health this type of caregiving is on the rise partly because of the growing number of parents unwilling and unable to take care of their children due to the following issues.

• Abuse and Neglect
• Drug Addiction
• Incarceration
• AIDS
• Violent Crime
• Teen Pregnancy
• Poverty
• Mental Illness
• Illness/Death

       
As a result, caregivers are facing unique situations.  For example, Minkler states that more than one-tenth of all grandparents now provide the primary care for at least six months and typically much longer.  According to a recent study of kinship care by the Children’s Research Institute of California, only little more than half of the relatives caring for foster children receive the subsidies that   are usually paid to non-relative foster parents.  Those caregivers not involved with foster care in Milwaukee if eligible receive kinship payments, which are $215 per month per child or child support while others who are ineligible receive nothing. 

According to Cassi Feldman, caregivers have extra needs.  In addition to the financial burden of caring for a child, they shoulder difficult parenting tasks due to the traumatic experiences the children had in their original home.  These children often need not just food and clothing, but therapy, special education, and attention to their emotional problems.  For a caregiver already overwhelmed, the resources may feel out of reach.  Our program can and has helped by providing caregivers with the support, information and direction they need to navigate through these issues and the service systems available to them.