The State of Kinship Care in British Columbia – PSS & University of Northern BC (2021)

The findings of the 2019-2020 research done on kinship care in BC. This report gives a powerful picture of who kinship care families are and the challenges they face. It contains 27 recommendations based on what we heard from kinship care families. To download the full report click here.

This legal guide for kinship caregivers was originally published, by PSS in 2009, and then was revised in 2014 to reflect changes in BC Family Law. It has not been revised since, and some links no longer work etc. However, there is some valuable information contained in it. Click here to down https://www.parentsupportbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2014-GRG-Legal-Guide.pdf

Kinship Care Book Recommendations

Most should be available from your local library and/or independent bookstore. 

Click the button below to download this list:

To Grandma’s House We Stay by Sally Houtman (Studio 4 Productions – 2006) To Grandma’s House, We–Stay: When You Have to Stop Spoiling Your Grandchildren and Start Raising Them: Houtman, Sally: 9781882349265: Books – Amazon.ca

Grandparents as Parents by Sylvie de Toledo and Deborah Edler Brown (Guilford Press – 2014) Grandparents as Parents: Second Edition: A Survival Guide for Raising a Second Family (guilford.com)

Raising Our Children’s Children: Room in the Heart by Deborah Doucetter (Taylor Trade Publishing – 2014)  Raising Our Children’s Children: Room in the Heart: Doucette, Deborah, LaCure, Jeffrey R. Dr.: 9781589799264: Books – Amazon.ca

Raising Grandkids: Inside Skipped Generation Families by Gary Garrison (University of Regina Press – 2018) Raising Grandkids (uofrpress.ca)

Grandfamily Guide Book by Andrew Adesman, MD and Christine Adamec ( Hazelden Publishing – 2018) https://www.hazelden.org/store/item/508141

Grandparenting the Children of Addicted Parents Edited by Janet Bujra (Jessica Kingsley Publishers – 2019 https://utpdistribution.com/9781785925399/grandparenting-the-children-of-addicted-parents/

Whoopee I’m a GRG: Reparenting at Age 71 by Joy Sheldon (Amazon) https://www.amazon.ca/Whoopee-Im-GRG-Reparenting-Age/ A short humorous memoir by a local grandparent raising a grandchild.

Children’s books:

A Grandfamily for Sullivan by Beth Winkler Tyson (www.bethtyson.com) – 2019

Our Grandfamily by Sandra Werle (Friesen Press) – 2016 https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000022236071/Sandra-Werle-Our-Grandfamily

Many of these Books on Grandparents & Kinship Care can be found at your local bookstore or library:  list of BC libraries and links to their online catalogues.

AgedOut.com

AgedOut.com is for young adults who were in government care in BC. It’s an up-to-date warehouse of information on resources and services available to young adults and a learning tool to help people feel empowered as they leave care.

AgedOut.com

Provincial Tuition Waiver Program

Many youths raised in kinship care are eligible for the Provincial Tuition Waiver Program.
Provincial Tuition Waiver Program | StudentAidBC

Watch the video of PSS’s October 2021 Tuition Waiver Workshop: 

Useful Links

Online Reading:

Child Abuse Is Wrong: What Can I Do? – A part of a series of Public Legal Education and Information publications produced under the Family Violence Initiative of the Department of Justice Canada https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/caw-mei/pdf/caw_2017.pdf

Implementation of the objectives of the International Year of the Family – by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (Click for the full document at the bottom of the page or click here to be taken directly to the document) https://undocs.org/A/74/61

Legal Aid:

Legal Aid BC: family.legalaid.bc.ca

Rise Women’s Legal Centre:
Community legal clinic based in Vancouver BC serving individuals who self-identify as women; services are open and inclusive
womenslegalcentre.ca

For info for wills/estates:
www.peopleslawschool.ca
www.accessprobono.ca

Indigenous:

Aboriginal Legal Aid: aboriginal.legalaid.bc.ca

BC First Nations Justice Council:
If you self identify as Indigenous, are low-moderate income, and need legal support with a child protection cases: bcfnjc.com