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The Center for States designs products, services, and learning experiences to increase understanding and awareness, and build knowledge and skills. The Center focuses its attention on developing products and resources on several core organizational and practice topics.

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Showing 16 - 30 of 38 resources
Video

Hear about the challenges and successes and how Donaniece is teaching her grandson the meaning of family.

Publication Year 2016
Video

Shares Molene’s story about becoming the primary caregiver for her four nieces, raising them, adopting them, negotiating the child welfare system, and creating a family.

Publication Year 2016
Video

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).

Publication Year 2016
Video

Highlights one foster and adoptive mother's experience becoming a kinship caregiver for her own grandson and the impact of agency support. In this video, she discusses the fears and questions she faced in taking on this dual role of mother and grandmother and how a foster care specialist supported them during the transition.

Publication Year 2018
Video

Addresses the challenges that some caregivers face in their dual roles as grandparents and kinship parents and the value of support networks. In this video, a paternal grandparent discusses how she and her husband provide security and stability for their family by focusing on their grandchildren's emotional and educational needs with valuable agency support and maternal family involvement.

Publication Year 2018
Video

Tells the story of Melissa and her two sons, David and Emilio, following their adoption. This set of digital stories underscores the need for connections, educational supports, and post-adoption services.

Publication Year 2020
Video

Demonstrates the dedication and flexibility needed when providing kinship care in order to navigate visitation schedules, foster care certification processes, and permanency proceedings.

Publication Year 2018
PDF

Use the template and instructions provided to develop parent partner program manuals.

Publication Year 2016
Webinar

Learn how child welfare professionals and family leaders can use the Parent Partner Program Navigator, a web-based, interactive resource that offers guidance for designing and implementing parent partner programs at child welfare agencies.

Publication Year 2016
Video

Spotlights how agency support and resources helped one kinship family identify creative solutions to challenges they faced. In this video, a parent reflects on her family's experience with the kinship program and how it enabled her to connect and collaborate with her kinship son's biological family.

Publication Year 2018
PDF

This handout is part of the series, “Perspectives on Normalcy: Videos and Discussion Questions.” It is designed to facilitate discussion about the issues raised in the video, “Kinship Adoption: You Get a Call, ‘Do You Want These Kids?’”

Publication Year 2016
Video

Emphasizes the necessity of strong community supports to create a secure and stable environment for a new kinship family. In this video, a grandparent discusses moving across the country to ensure her grandchildren could see their parents.

Publication Year 2018
Video

Reveals the complexity of family dynamics through the experiences of Shary, a kinship parent caring for her niece, Brianna, and grandson, Random. In the first digital story, Brianna seeks to reconnect the pieces in her family puzzle. The second digital story highlights Random's unflappable resilience despite medical challenges.

Publication Year 2020
Video

Hear from a family about the challenges of dealing with an autism diagnosis and other issues while navigating the child welfare system.

Publication Year 2017
Video

Addresses motivations for becoming a kinship parent and the importance of having agency guidance and support to navigate shifting family roles and dynamics. This video presents one family's transition from kinship care to adoption, and highlights resources that contributed to their success and their ability to provide permanency for their adoptive daughter.

Publication Year 2018