This is Kinship
By an Adopt4Life Community Kinship Caregiver
Support, what support?
Did you know that the system funding is failing the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) when it comes to kinship placements? Did you know that the Government only provides CAS with a $1000 a year for kinship placement to support kin? Neither did I that day I took a call on April 15, 2020, to take in two family members. Nor did I know there was a difference between kinship in care versus out of care. All I was given was 15 minutes to decide if I could take them in or else, they'd be moved 7 hours away to people they don't know.
We were in a pandemic, I had 6 children currently living under my roof, 2 of which were siblings to the children in question and I was being asked to take two more in, of course, I said yes, why wouldn't I? Did I mention I needed to work full-time and get all the kids online for schooling daily for 5 different schools?
No problem, I would never say no to family. We will make this work. I now had 4 children with special needs. Costs for supplies, groceries, school were increasing. Four of the kids’ schools would not supply electronics so that was the first call to CAS, and I was told right away there is no money for electronics. However, they would give me $50 grocery gift card to help pay for food for 10 people. Fair enough, I'll figure it out.
One of my kiddos needed intensive speech therapy, once again placed a call to CAS and was told they don't cover these costs. “What do you mean you don't cover these costs?” There is no money for kinship placements.
Fast forward 3 years in the trenches, increasing medical supply costs, specialist fees, medical testing fees, need for respite, sitting on a call with CAS, CHEO and a panel of specialists, the discussion for funding comes up and the supports needed for these children and my family. The worker from CAS calmly says, “we get $1000 a year for kinship placements.” There is no money. Meanwhile, I cannot apply for complex medical needs funding as the kids are still not permanently placed with us due to a pandemic. Did I mention we were in a pandemic? Yep, there is that word Covid and these kids were removed 3 years ago and yet everything is still before the courts.
No wonder there are multiple placement breakdowns. We are not treated equally to foster parents. Why is this? Just because we are kin doesn't mean we don't need support, in fact, we probably need more support as this trauma affects us more closely as there was a connection to the children prior to coming into care. In my case, they are my blood relation, instead we are left to fend for ourselves and are trying to keep our heads above water. The system is broken, it does not take the needs of the child into consideration. There is no paid time off to settle the children and form attachment, there is no funding and there is absolutely no support for the kin who are caring for these children.
And so, the struggle continues… and once again I am left to wonder how else the system is going to fail these children. It is much more than just financial support; we need physical and mental support as well. We need resources, we are not trained for this.
This is kinship and it’s really hard.
The opinions expressed in blogs posted reflect their author and do not represent any official stance of Adopt4Life. We respect the diversity of opinions within the adoption, kinship and customary care community and hope that these posts will stimulate meaningful conversations.
