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February/March 2002Vol. 3, No. 2New Grants From HHS Support Older Caregivers of Young Relatives

Older relatives who care for young kin are among the family caregivers targeted for help by new grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson in October announced the award of approximately $6 million for 34 projects to develop innovative approaches to helping older relatives caring for children as well as families and others caring for older persons.

The grants are a component of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP), which is administered by HHS's Administration on Aging (AoA). NFCSP was launched in early 2001 to establish a range of caregiver services including information, respite care, counseling, training, and supplemental services. With the new grants, AoA will be able to assess the effectiveness of these services. The grants will focus on:

  • Systems development
  • Service components
  • Linkages to special populations and communities
  • Field-initiated demonstrations to develop and test new approaches to support caregivers
  • National projects to enhance the development of caregiver programs.

The grants were awarded to State and area agencies on aging, nonprofit community service providers, institutions of higher learning, and national organizations with expertise in aging and caregiving issues. Among the funded projects that focus on kinship care of children are the following:

  • United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona will increase services to grandparents and older caregivers who are raising children with mental retardation or developmental disabilities
  • Generations United in Washington, DC, will establish the National Center on Grandparents and other Relatives Raising Children to provide technical assistance and training to enhance caregiver intergenerational programs
  • Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester, NY, will collaborate with 15 national and local organizations to create an integrated care management approach to support relative caregivers of grandchildren and adult children with developmental disabilities.

The complete list of awards is available on the AoA website at http://www.aoa.gov/pressroom/Pr2001/innovativecare.html. (Editor's note: this link is no longer available. More information can be found at http://www.aoa.gov/prof/aoaprog/caregiver/caregiver.asp.) Information on NFCSP can be obtained by calling the AoA Office of Program Development at 202-619-0011.

Related Items

See the following related articles in past issues of the Children's Bureau Express:

  • "Online Support for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren" (Nov./Dec. 2001)
  • "New Law Supports Grandparents Raising Grandchildren" (March/April 2001)
  • "The GrandFamilies House: A Home for Parenting Grandparents and Their Grandchildren" (March/April 2001)

Visit the website of the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse for a list of resources related to grandparents raising grandchildren (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/reslist/rl_dsp.cfm?subjID=30&rate_chno=AR-0028A).