Winter 2008 Volume 5, Number 1

Support Groups Benefit Relatives as Parents

Roxanne Miller
Regional Civic Communications Specialist
University of Missouri Extension
314-615-7607 office
636-574-1324 pager
MillerRT@missouri.edu

The Gateway Grandparents/Kinship Network has awarded small seed grants of $400 each to 12 agencies and organizations in St. Louis City and St. Louis and Jefferson counties to help establish new support groups for Relatives as Parents. The checks were presented to agency representatives at a January 15 meeting in Clayton.

The grants were made possible through a $10,000 two-year regional grant from the Brookdale Foundation Group, awarded to the Gateway Grandparents/Kinship Network in June 2007. The 12 agencies (and representatives) receiving grants are:

St. Louis City

• St. Alphonsus Liguori “Rock” Catholic Church,
  St. Louis, MO 63106
  (Dr. Pearl Johnson)

St. Louis County

• Blankets of Hope, Richmond Heights, MO 63117
  (Christina Pollard-Hair)

• The Boyhood Initiative of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63135
  (Huey Hawkins, Jr.)

• Community Action Agency of St. Louis County, St. Louis, MO 63114
  (Chris Boyd)

• Cry Out Youth Ministries,St. Louis, MO 63136
  (Selena Stiles)

• Epworth Children & Family Services, Webster Groves, MO 63119
  (Casie Neu)

• Kydz La Casa Learning Center, St. Louis, MO 63033
  (Dr. Harriet Ball-Stanburri)

• Masterpeace Studios, Kirkwood, MO 63122
  (Megan Wolf)

• Salem Lutheran Church & School, Affton, MO 63123
  (Deaconess Ruth McDonnell)

• Villas of Grace Senior Living Center, St. Louis, MO 63033
  (Trymiah Miller)

Jefferson County

• Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Arnold, MO 63010
  (Alvin Huther)

• University of Missouri Extension Council of
  Jefferson County, Hillsboro, MO 63050
  (B.J. Eavy)

“I am very excited about the interest and creativity the recipient agencies presented as ways to enrich and enhance the lives of Relatives as Parents and the children in their care,” said
Elizabeth Reinsch, Ph.D., extension human development specialist headquartered in St. Louis County and coordinator of the Gateway Grandparents/Kinship Network. “How wonderful to have other organizations step up to the plate to begin to address the concerns and issues of families represented by Relatives as Parents.”

Organized in 1998, the Gateway Grandparents/Kinship Network is a coalition of 11 agencies and service providers working to address issues important to relative caregivers in the St. Louis Metro Area. The coalition members are listed on page one column one of this newsletter.

Brookdale Foundation Group is a national organization that has provided financial support to agencies across the United States since 1996 to establish support groups for grandparents and other relatives who have taken on responsibility of surrogate parenting.

According to the 2000 Census, more than 31,000 children under the age of 18 live with a grandparent in the five-county area of St. Louis, Franklin, Jefferson and St. Charles counties and St. Louis City. The percentage of children in each county under the age of 18 living with a grandparent is: City of St. Louis (11.7 percent), St. Louis County (5.5 percent),
Jefferson County (5.1 percent), Franklin County (4.5 percent), and St. Charles County (3.3
percent).

For more information about Gateway Grandparents/Kinship Network and the resources it provides, contact Elizabeth Reinsch at 314-615-7605, or visit the Web at http://extension.missouri.edu/ecregion/grandparent.