Kinship Care Support Group from Salvation Army

Tomorrow we will teach the Grandmas in the Kinship Care Support Group run by Salvation Army how to mend their grandchildren's clothes. It will save them money to be able to fix the clothes rather than have to buy more clothes. The ladies in this group are to be admired! What a difficult experience in the autumn of life. We will keep them in our prayers.

Below is an article from the Patriot News about the Kinship Care Support Group:

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Just a few short years ago, Ernestine David's life was spiraling out of control. Her daughter had just been sent to jail, she was parenting her granddaughter by herself, and she had just been diagnosed with cancer. Feeling overextended by her renewed role as caregiver, she was forced to leave her job with the Harrisburg School District, and then, another revelation: Her granddaughter was pregnant, at age 14. That was when she gave it up to a higher power. "I don't want to say we were homeless," David said, pausing as a tear rolled down her cheek. "But we were. I had just lost my job. I lost my father. I was diagnosed with an illness. We had just applied to public housing, but I didn't know if they'd give us a place to live. I had nothing but God."

Somewhere, someone must have been listening. Since those rough days five years ago, David has settled her family - including great-granddaughter Keyasia - into affordable housing, kicked the cancer that was ravaging her body and found her greatest blessing of all: the Salvation Army Greater Harrisburg's Kinship Care Support Group.

The group, which began in early 2008, meets once a week to offer both emotional and financial support for caregivers making a second - or sometimes third - go of parenting. David found the group based on a friend's recommendation. She's been coming ever since. "This group of loving individuals has helped me so much," David said. "It's not a support group, it's a family. If one of my sisters is going through something, I feel it."

Salvation Army officials made plans for the group after seeing the spike in need among kinship caregivers around the holidays, said Trinette Ream, family service director. They weren't the most regular visitors to the Salvation Army, but when it came to time for Christmas, grandparents across the community were seeking help, trying to make the holiday special for their grandchildren on limited budgets, she said.

Organizers try to tailor the group's activities to the caregivers' needs, she said. They take trips together, including a grandparents' retreat, and guest speakers from local agencies and law enforcement frequently come to speak and answer questions. But most importantly, the group provides fellowship for the grandparents thrust into the role of second-time parent, Ream said.

Many kinship caregivers face additional financial strain. It's hard to get support to raise a grandchild without suing your own family members for child support, Ream said. Most of the grandparents in the group live on checks from any jobs they find time to work and social security. Many, like David, have no choice but to quit working as the strain of running to pick up children and managing their lives becomes too much for employers to excuse, Ream said. "They're forced to choose between caring for kids and getting a paycheck to put food on the table," she said.