Kinship Care within the Child Welfare System
This training session is a part of our 2022 Community Response to Child Abuse Conference. Purchase of this content opens access to all 19 sessions and corresponding continuing education credits.
Kinship Care is ongoing care provided for a child by a relative or fictive relative caregiver. Fictive Kinship Caregivers have a emotional tie to a child and/or the child’s parents and are accepted as part of the child’s extended family, even if they are not related by blood, through marriage, or as a custodian. Kinship Care improves outcomes related to placement stability and connections when a child is involved in the Child Welfare System. This session will focus on the types of Kinship Care in South Dakota and how those practices protect children, promote permanency, and strengthen their sense of belonging. It will discuss the history of Kinship Care and how traditions and different cultures view the practice of caring for kin. The practice of relatives or “kin” parenting children when their birth parents cannot is a time-honored tradition within the Native American culture. This session will include input from people with lived experiences as a Kinship Care provider.
