Kinship Support Services are provided throughout Broward County to extended family members or friends who have taken on the care and custody of someone else's child. Many of these family members and friends live in poverty and were given or took responsibility of the children with little notice, and have limited financial or support resources. Because many of them have no legal custodial rights, this limits their ability to access medical care, public benefits, social services, childcare, legal aid and other information essential to the wellbeing of the children. Often caregivers have had to give up their jobs to care for the children; others have had difficulty maintaining employment, because they needed to take time off to care for the children and deal with emergencies.

Children served by Kinship Support Services are from birth to 18, or up to age 22 if they have special needs. Many are siblings all in the care of one couple or one extended family member. The children have often been abused, neglected and/or abandoned or are in the situation due to issues affecting their parents’ abilities to cope, such as substance abuse or mental health issues. Many were born suffering from the effects of drugs and/or alcohol while their mother was pregnant, and most have been bounced around between several homes and/or may have been in and out of the foster care system.

KID staff works with the entire family group, not just the children, and individualizes services to meet the needs of them all. We focus heavily on what the caregivers tell us they really need - whether it be respite care, enabling the caregiver to take a break or Flex Funds to provide extras like activity fees, band uniforms, tutoring, field trips, etc. for their children.