Kinship Family: You Get a Call, Do You Want These Kids?

Bruce and Brenda have been married for 33 years and have four daughters. From 2006 to 2009, they provided a kinship placement for their four grandchildren. In 2010, the couple adopted Bruce (now 18 years old), Tre’Nae (now 15 years old), Mason (now 13 years old), and Kiaunna (now 10 years old).

Questions to Promote Discussion

• How did Bruce and Brenda create normal experiences for their grandchildren?
• What could the system have done differently to support Bruce and Brenda and their grandchildren? How does your system support kinship families (i.e., emotionally, financially)?
• What system barriers did Bruce and Brenda encounter?
• How might the system unintentionally be creating barriers when facilitating normalcy in kinship settings?
• What did the family say about providing a safe and stable environment?
• What images in the video suggest that the family was promoting healthy development for their grandchildren? What outcomes would you expect to see?

Print these materials for use in your next training:

• You Get a Call, “Do You Want These Kids?”
• About Normalcy and the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard