Every day, grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings and even close family friends are stepping in to raise children when their parents can't.
Sometimes it happens after a family crisis. Sometimes it happens overnight, and often those caregivers don't see themselves as part of a system. They just see themselves as family.
More than 10,000 Idaho children are being raised by their grandparents and over 43,000 children live in households headed by relatives. And for every child in foster care living with kin, an estimated 18 more are being raised by relatives outside the foster care system.
Now, Idaho is taking a unique step. Following the passage of Senate Resolution 118, the Idaho Caregiver Alliance is leading the development of what could become the nation's first comprehensive statewide kinship plan, a roadmap built not just for families, but with families.
Keith Mason, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Idaho, Tammy Creswell, a kinship caregiver who is raising her granddaughter, and Sheila Weaver, program manager with the Idaho Caregiver Alliance joined Idaho Matters to talk more about this effort.
