Join Us for Our Upcoming Webinar! | | |
Evidence-Based Kinship Navigator Programs: Which federally approved model is right for your state or tribe?
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
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Join us for a webinar featuring leaders from three evidence-based kinship navigator program models: Kinship Interdisciplinary Navigation Technologically Advanced Model (KIN-TECHTM) – Florida, Foster Kinship Navigator Program – Nevada, and the Washington State Kinship Navigator Program. Each of these models connects kin caregivers and their families, most of whom are not involved with the child welfare system, to critical services and supports. Each program has been found to be evidence-based by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, and therefore they – and any other title IV-E agency following their model with fidelity – are eligible for ongoing, uncapped title IV-E federal reimbursement of 50% of all costs to operate the program. Several states are already following these models with fidelity and obtaining ongoing federal reimbursement for their kinship navigator programs.
We’re offering this webinar now to help more states and tribes select a model to follow with fidelity, and to prepare state and tribal public child welfare agencies, universities, and nonprofit organizations to apply for the Fiscal Year 2026 title IV-B competitive grant opportunity. That Notice of Funding Opportunity is expected to be released in February 2026 and will likely include the requirement to name an evidence-based model to follow.
| | | | Since we launched our LinkedIn page in September 2023, we’ve been using it to share the latest news, data, and replicable practices and tools to support your work with kinship families. Join our over 4,200 followers and keep up with the latest kinship news between monthly issues of this newsletter. | | What's New From the Network? | |
Storytelling Resource Guide
Our latest resource, produced in collaboration with our partners at ZERO TO THREE, shares ethical considerations and tips to help nonprofits interview program participants to create and share stories that highlight the impact of their programs.
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New School Meals Flier and Updated School Meals Fact Sheet
Our subject matter experts at the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) have created a new flier, intended to be shared directly with families, to help increase awareness about school breakfast and lunch programs among kinship/grandfamilies. Anyone who works directly with families may want to have a stack of these fliers on hand for distribution. Additionally, FRAC has updated the school meals fact sheet that they previously prepared for us. A Spanish version of the flier is available, and a Spanish version of the updated school meals fact sheet will be available by the end of the month.
| | Individual Assistance Spotlight | | | | The Network is responding free of charge to individual technical assistance (TA) requests from professionals who work in systems and organizations that serve kinship/grandfamilies. To request assistance on the array of issues impacting kinship/grandfamilies, please complete our request assistance form. | | |
We answer questions and respond to requests of all sizes. Some questions focus on a very specific topic and/or location, while others are much broader. Below, we share an example of a TA request and response.
Request
Often times, Native families come into our tribal court with no representation. State courts give both parents legal representation, but not kin caregivers. How can I help Native kinship families access legal representation in court?
Response
The Network, along with its partner, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, developed two resources that may be helpful to Native kin caregivers seeking legal representation or support with legal/custody concerns.
To make an individual request, please complete this form and we will get in touch.
| | We’ve collected stories and statistics about the Network’s impact on a special page of our website. If you visit that page, you can learn more about our reach and read the stories that we’ve been sharing in this monthly newsletter. Going forward, we’re going to continue to highlight stories in the newsletter to help give those of you who haven’t yet contacted us for individual support an idea of what we do and how we can help you. We’ll also keep updating the webpage with new stories. We hope you’ll read them and be inspired to connect with us! |
| Presentations by the Network | | | | On Thursday, October 23, at 3 p.m. ET, the National Information & Referral Support Center at ADvancing States will hold a webinar featuring Ana and Leland Kiang, of Network partner USAging. The webinar will raise awareness about kinship families and present some example scenarios of the type of support kin caregivers might seek from professionals in the information and referral field. | | | | On Friday, November 14, Network Subject Matter Expert Heidi Redlich Epstein and two practicing kinship attorneys will present at the 48th National Child Welfare Law Conference, hosted by the National Association of Counsel for Children. Their presentation, “Legal Representation for Kin: Maximizing Opportunities,” will elevate “Legal Service Models for Kin Caregivers,” a resource created by the ABA Center on Children and the Law and the Network. The conference will take place online. Register by Friday, October 31 to receive early bird registration rates. | | | | Also on Friday, November 14, Ana and Leland will present as part of Inform USA’s Virtual Gathering 2025. Their presentation is called “What You Need to Know about Kinship Navigation and Information & Referral to Support Kinship/Grandfamilies.” | | |
Casey Family Programs has been hosting a series of virtual and in-person gatherings focused on developing/promoting a kin-first culture in child welfare agencies. The Network has been involved in this work, including presenting at a two-day September convening in Seattle. Network Subject Matter Experts Angelique Day, Gail Engel, Heidi Redlich Epstein, and Marina Nitze, along with our director, Ana Beltran, each contributed to the convening, which brought together eight states and two tribes working to enhance their kin-first cultures.
The event kicked off with thought-provoking words from Dr. David Sanders, including a commitment to collectively strive towards placing at least 75% of all children in foster care with kin. In 2017, at a similar convening with several jurisdictions and national leaders, we developed 7 steps for a Kin-First Culture. Now we're taking this work to the next level with tools like Valuing and Supporting Kin Caregivers: A Training for Child Welfare Agencies, the Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards, and a Kin-Finding Toolkit (which is currently being updated).
| | What's New Around the Network? | |
Webinar – Funding SNAP in the Wake of H.R. 1: Creative State Solutions for Protecting Families and Communities
Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
Tuesday, October 21 at 3 p.m. ET
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| FRAC is the nutrition subject matter expert organization for the Network. To help states and localities adapt to the changes wrought by this summer’s budget and reconciliation law, FRAC is hosting this webinar. The webinar seeks to put the spotlight on leaders from across the country who are finding creative ways to raise revenue—ensuring that programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) remain strong and that families don’t go hungry. Join FRAC for an in-depth conversation with national experts and state leaders who are taking the lead in reimagining how to protect and fund food assistance. | |
Webinar – Connecting with Community Action Agencies – Valuable Partners for Changing Times
Inform USA
Wednesday, October 22 at 1 p.m. ET
| | Community Action Agencies play a vital role in most communities across the United States. They meet and connect with families in a variety of ways, providing much-needed services from cradle to grave. This webinar will explore how the Michigan 2-1-1 Network has developed strong relationships with its community action agencies, leading to a win-win for people who need help. | |
Call for Submissions: Caregiver Services and Supports Innovations Hub
USAging
Submission Deadline: Friday, October 31
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| Does your organization offer an innovative caregiver program, service, or intervention? If so, you are invited to submit it for inclusion in the Caregiver Services and Supports Innovation Hub, which is run by USAging, a Network managing partner organization. Inclusion in the Hub is open to innovations beyond the Aging Network and provides national visibility, encourages replication, and helps advance solutions. Program examples may include: caregiver peer support and counseling programs; respite alternatives, including those targeted to kin caregivers; and caregiver trainings. | | |
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Just Released: 2025 State of Grandfamilies and Kinship Care Update
Generations United
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Kinship Legal Toolkit
American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law
| | | Network Subject Matter Expert Heidi Redlich Epstein, of the ABA Center on Children and the Law, with support from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, recently released a first of its kind, national Kinship Legal Toolkit. The Toolkit is designed to support legal professionals, including judges, in their work with kinship families. | | | |
Prioritizing Black Kinship Caregivers’ Health Means Reducing Their Stress
Child Trends
| | This research brief, co-authored by Network Subject Matter Expert Tyreasa Washington and published by Child Trends, a Network managing partner organization, focuses on the experiences of Black kin caregivers, describing the causes of stress in their lives, explaining the negative impacts of stress on health, and sharing ideas for working with caregivers in their communities to reduce their stress. Links within the brief lead to data compiled by the Network and our parent organization, Generations United. | |
New Resources for Tribal and State Case Managers and ICWA Advocates
National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA)
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NICWA, a Network managing partner organization, has developed and published several new resources with the generous support of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. The resources seek to support compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), and they are designed to support Tribal and state case managers involved in state child welfare systems serving Native children and families. They are also intended to be informational for Native families, legal professionals, child welfare staff, service providers, and allies involved in ICWA advocacy. The links below will take you directly to the five resources.
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Aligning Work Requirements Across SNAP and Medicaid to Support Public Benefit Continuity
Center for Health Care Strategies
This brief encourages states to coordinate their Medicaid and SNAP work requirement verification systems to reduce the burden on both eligibility workers and people who apply for benefits. It also recommends cross-training SNAP and Medicaid workers and engaging in other cross-agency staff efforts (like advisory committees and regularly scheduled meetings).
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The Role of SHIPs in Helping People with Medicare Navigate Their Coverage
KFF
This brief focuses on the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), which provides funding to a national network of state-based SHIPs that offer free counseling and education to Medicare beneficiaries and their families to help them make informed decisions about their health coverage and benefits.
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Notable Funding Opportunities
(listed in order of application deadline)
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Several of the grants highlighted below are federal grants. A notice at the top of Grants.gov indicates that the lapse in federal funding may affect the Grants.gov website. Additionally, it says, “For those programs affected by the funding lapse, the Grants.gov system will accept and store applications until such time as the responsible awarding agency has the authority and funding to return to normal business operations.”
Please note that funding opportunities from the Department of Justice have two deadlines, both of which are mandatory for the completion of the application. The first deadline is for an initial submission through Grants.gov, and the second deadline is for the full application, which must be submitted through JustGrants.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is accepting applications for funding from the OJJDP FY25 Multistate Mentoring Programs grant. This grant will support mentoring organizations to enhance and expand mentoring services for children and youth who are at risk or high risk for delinquency, victimization, and juvenile justice system involvement. Applicants can have mentoring programming in a single state or multiple states. Applicants that are active in a single state are expected to use funding to expand their mentoring services to an additional state or an additional jurisdiction within the state where they are already providing mentoring services. The Grants.gov deadline is Tuesday, October 21 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The JustGrants deadline is Monday, October 27 at 8:59 p.m. ET.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is accepting applications for funding from the OJJDP FY25 Mentoring for Youth Affected by Opioid and Other Substance Use grant. This grant supports the implementation and delivery of high-quality mentoring services for youth who are currently using or dependent on substances, as well as youth at risk of substance use or who have close family members experiencing substance use or dependency. Applicants should target both the impacted youth and their families. Grants are available both to local project sites (Category 1) and to statewide and regional approaches (Category 2). The Grants.gov deadline is Thursday, October 23 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The JustGrants deadline is Thursday, October 30 at 8:59 p.m. ET.
The Nordstrom Community Grants program is designed to support hyper-local grassroots organizations addressing critical community needs. Their focus areas are (1) providing basic needs, food, shelter, and clothing to fulfill the essentials necessary for families to thrive and (2) creating opportunities for youth and families to achieve economic mobility. Grants range from $5,000 to $20,000. Applications are due by Friday, October 31.
The Lawrence Foundation makes grants to U.S.-based qualified charitable organizations. One of their areas of interest is human services. Grants typically range between $5,000 and $10,000. Applications are due by Friday, October 31.
RRF Foundation for Aging focuses on improving the quality of life for older people. Among their priority areas are Economic Security Later in Life, Housing, and Social and Intergenerational Connectedness. Letters of Inquiry for the current grant cycle are due by Saturday, November 1.
The U.S. Department of Housing’s Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinator (ROSS-SC) Program – Fiscal Year 2025 grant program is accepting applications. The ROSS-SC program is designed to help residents of Public and Indian Housing make progress towards economic and housing self-sufficiency by addressing educational, professional, and health barriers. The application deadline is Tuesday, December 2 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
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Federal Government Shutdown
The National Association of Counties provides useful information about the impact of the government shutdown on several programs that help kinship/grandfamilies. Many programs will not receive federal funding during the shutdown, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). This puts more burden on states and counties and may result in a loss of services.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid, both of which are outside of the regular appropriations process, will continue to receive automatic funding. A Kiplinger article explains that Medicare and Social Security are considered to be mandatory and do not get their funding from annual Congressional votes, so they will continue throughout the shutdown. However, due to staff furloughs, some services, like Medicare card replacement, will not be available. Furthermore, a CNBC article explains that the Medicare rule allowing patients to use telehealth to see their doctors from home has expired, meaning that only certain people on Medicare (like those who are living in rural areas, those who are on home dialysis, and those who experienced strokes) are able to use telehealth.
The Food Research & Action Center, the Network’s nutrition subject matter expert organization, has prepared blog posts about the effect of the government shutdown on WIC, SNAP, and the child nutrition programs (which include the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program).
The National Congress of American Indians and the Coalition for Tribal Sovereignty have prepared government shutdown resources for Tribal Nations.
The First Five Years Fund has published information about the effect of the shutdown on Child Care Development Block Grants and Head Start.
The Imprint, October 7, 2025
This article is about Alex Adams, who has been confirmed as the assistant secretary of the U.S. Administration for Children and Families. Adams previously led the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and he has made foster care a priority in his work in this field.
FRAC Chat, October 6, 2025
This blog post highlights the recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it will stop releasing its annual Household Food Security report after the publication of the October 22 edition. As noted in the blog, “For decades, this report has provided critical insight into who in America struggles to put food on the table. Without it, the millions of families struggling to put food on the table become invisible, and the problem becomes harder to fix.”
The Washington Post, October 4, 2025
This powerful article discusses the distribution and use of the opioid settlement funds while highlighting the struggles and resilience of one grandmother who is raising her granddaughter as a result of the opioid crisis. Please note that the article is behind a paywall. Our parent organization, Generations United, has several resources related to the intersection of the opioid epidemic and kinship/grandfamilies. One of these resources, “Take Action: Opioid Settlement Funds for Grandfamilies,” offers advocacy tips for people to use at the state and local levels. Another is the State of Grandfamilies Report from 2018, “Raising the Children of the Opioid Epidemic: Solutions and Supports for Grandfamilies.” Lastly, a series of tip sheets seeks to help grandfamilies impacted by opioids.
KFF, September 25, 2025
This article details the changes in immigrant eligibility for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the subsidized Affordable Care Act Marketplace, and Medicare coverage as a result of the tax and budget reconciliation law of July 2025.
UAPB News, September 24, 2025
This article shines a light on a program run by University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Associate Professor Karleah Harris. The program, which is primarily for grandparent caregivers and the children they are raising, teaches gardening skills and sustainable gardening practices. Both the caregivers and the children enjoy getting to work in the garden, caring for the plants and watching them grow. The program provides participants, who might be dealing with food insecurity, with a harvest of crops to help them put healthy food on the table.
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The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network is the only national technical assistance center for those who serve grandfamilies and kinship families. It was created to help guide lasting, systemic reforms. The Network is a new way to collaborate, to work across jurisdictional and systemic boundaries, to eliminate silos, and to help one another and be helped in return. Thank you for being part of it.
We'd love to hear from you! Please send any feedback on this newsletter to mweiss@gu.org.
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The Network is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $9,950,000 with 95 percentage funded by ACL/HHS and $523,684 and 5 percentage funded by non-government sources. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
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