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Mayors sign proclamation of support for National Kinship Awareness Month
SPECIAL TO THE STATE GAZETTE
September is Kinship Awareness Month and this year the Women/Men’s Rape Assistance Program [WRAP] Relative Caregiver Program wants to bring attention to and awareness about Relative Caregiver placements in the Dyer County community.
In July 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a study reporting that 17 out of every 18 displaced American children currently reside with relatives rather than in foster care. Many of these relatives stepping up for the children they love are on fixed incomes, struggling to find resources, and/or just need the support of others who understand their unique family dynamic. For this reason, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee grew the existing Tennessee Relative Caregiver Program greatly in January 2023.
The program is designed to support children who are unable to be raised by their parents and the relatives who step up to raise them when the child has been abandoned, orphaned, abused and/or neglected by their parents for a variety of reasons. Relatives may have custody either formally or informally at this time; however, relatives must be related to the child's parent by blood, marriage, or adoption and within first, second, or third-degree.
It is widely recognized that children, who cannot be raised by their parents, have better social, emotional and educational outcomes when they are able to remain in the care of their families and with their siblings. The Relative Caregiver Program assists families and children with these unique family backgrounds with a variety of support services, up to and including some financial assistance that was added in January 2023. Also in January 2023, the program expanded to all Tennessee counties, at which time the WRAP Relative Caregiver Program was also established to serve all twenty West Tennessee counties.
This month, the Dyer County Family Advocate, Delta Newhouse, set out to raise awareness and to celebrate Dyer County Relative Caregivers with the community. Also honoring Relative Caregivers were Newbern Mayor Pam Mabry, Dyersburg Mayor John Holden, and Dyer County Mayor David Quick with the signing of the Relative Kinship Awareness Proclamation.
In addition, WRAP Relative Caregiver Program invited participant families from across the West Tennessee region to attend a celebration day at Casey Jones Village in Jackson, TN, and earlier in the month all Dyer, Lake, and Obion counties’ participating families were invited to attend a family night at the Dyer County Fair. The Dyer County Relative Caregiver monthly support group, RCPCares, wrapped up the month with dinner and a family game night on Tuesday, September 24, at 6 p.m.
If you, or someone you love, is raising your relatives' children in the absence of the primary parent please call us today or come visit any of our monthly support groups to see if our program can help support you and your relative children whom you love so dearly.