Michigan State University's Kinship Care Resource Center is one of several community programs in the School of Social Work at Michigan State University. The KCRC serves kinship care families across the state by providing information and referrals to resources and services for caregivers and the children they are raising. KCRC also offers support to professionals serving kinship families.
Alicia Guevara Warren is the newly appointed director of the center.
“Kinship caregivers are people who are providing care for children who are not their own,” she says. “In Michigan there are about 61,000 kids who live in kinship care. They’re living outside of the primary care of their own biological parents. This number has continued to rise over time. The most common way kids come into our care is through the child welfare system.
“The KCRC was founded in 2002, and we’re focused on supporting families who are experiencing kinship care. We walk them through all the different resources and services that might be available to them to help the well-being of themselves and the children in their care.
“We’re here to support kinship caregivers across the state, but also our service providers. Anybody who is interacting with kinship caregivers should feel free to reach out to us so that we can all work together to better support kinship caregivers. Really the idea is that the better we support our caregivers the better we’re supporting the children in their care.
MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on 105.1 FM and AM 870.