This past year, the Kinship-ND program assisted 243 caregivers in North Dakota who were caring for 448 children. The Kinship-ND program aids caregivers who care for children when their parents can’t. Christiana Pond works with the program.
"We provide one on one support so that they have someone they can talk to. We provide resources and information based off of their needs, so if they needed to understand something like understanding an IEP or ADHD, or even just basic parenting skills depending on their level of parenting knowledge. We also provide some limited financial assistance in the form of reimbursements."
About half of the caregivers in the Kinship-ND program in the past year were grandparents. Pond says the top needs for these families were financial help, food and supplies, and child care.
"Caregivers can be at varying states of legal setup. it could be somebody that has power of attorney or guardianship, or it could be somebody who is working with one of the human service zones because the child is affiliated with a CPS investigation or foster care. It's kind of wide open to all of the caregivers that we can assist. Don't let legal setup be something to stop you from applying to the program because we very much want to help all of the Kinship caregivers."
