In 2022, more than 2.5 million children were being raised in kinship care (i.e., by a grandparent, other relative, or close family friend), with the vast majority in informal care arrangements—in other words, they were being raised outside of the foster care system. Despite the known benefits of kinship care for children whose parents are unable to care for them, U.S. child welfare agencies place, on average, only 31 percent of children in foster care with kin.[1] This blog describes how creating and nurturing partnerships between public and private child welfare agencies—for example, through programs like Kinship Therapeutic Foster Care and Kinship Navigator Programs—can promote a kin-first culture and approach and increase supports for kinship families.
Kinship families are best supported when public and private child welfare agencies partner to meet their many varied needs. These can include public child welfare agencies partnering with private agencies to search for and engage kin, as many kin are wary of interacting with public agencies, or having a kinship navigator from a private agency attend a team decision-making meeting to help explain what resources are available to support a kinship caregiver. Prior studies show that communication and collaboration are needed to ensure that families found through intensive searches—for example, via scans of social media and use of tailored databases—remained engaged and supported once the private agency worker was no longer involved. Even with the best intent, it can be challenging for public and private child welfare agencies to work together. Competition for limited resources (e.g., funding, staff) often creates a barrier to effective public-private partnerships.