Keeping it in the Family: A Foundation Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Media Contact
Across the country, approximately 2.7 million grandparents are raising grandchildren. Children end up in the care of grandparents and other relatives when their parents can’t care for them for any number of reasons, including physical or mental illness, incarceration, drug addiction, job loss, divorce or death. In recent years, the opioid epidemic has robbed many children of their parents, as has COVID-19, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
Grandparents who take on the care of their grandchildren are playing an essential role — not only for their families, but for society as a whole. Research makes it clear that children fare far better in the care of a grandparent or another relative than they do in foster care. But for many grandparents, if not most, starting over as a primary caregiver is tough, and presents an array of physical, economic and emotional challenges.
The William Penn Foundation just launched an initiative that boosts support for grandparents in its hometown of Philadelphia. In that city, more than 17,000 grandchildren live in homes where grandparents provide their primary care. The foundation will provide $2.8 million in grants to eight organizations that are providing services to “grandfamilies” — families in which grandparents or other older relatives are the primary caregivers for young children.