The Resounding Resiliency of Grandfamilies: Generations United's Statement

Approximately 2.7 million grandparents in the United States are responsible for raising their grandchildren. More than one in five of these grandparents live below the poverty line. Yet their circumstances are often overlooked when trying to strengthen the financial lives of families in lower-income communities.

Despite these hardships, grandfamily households are a better alternative to placing children in non-relative care. Children raised in kinship care, or what are commonly referred to as grandfamilies, fare better than those placed in the care of non-relatives. They are more likely to report feeling loved, achieve stability, stay connected to their brothers and sisters and understand their roots and culture. They are also more likely to have a couch to crash on when they’re too old to stay in the foster care system.

And even though these grandparent caregivers are skilled money managers, they just don’t have enough to stretch when they take on raising their grandchildren.

We partnered with CFED and Citi Community Development to get a better understanding of grandfamilies, their financial lives and how the available resources can better serve them. The findings are included in our report, The Resounding Resilience of Grandfamilies: Financial Stories from Older Relatives Care for Children in Lower-Income Communities.

The report, based on interviews from 20 grandparent caregivers in Chicago and Trenton, NJ, includes stories of sacrifice. For many caregivers, sacrificing for the children meant giving up a life they envisioned. For others, these sacrifices meant giving up on thinking about the future (retirement, etc.).

These caregivers keep families together and save taxpayers $4 billion a year by keeping their grandchildren out of the foster care system.

Through our National Center on Grandfamilies, we work to enact policies and promote programs, like kinship navigators and respite care, which help grandfamilies address challenges. Research shows that programs like these can reduce costs and increase permanency, while resulting in fewer days in child welfare custody and lower rates of foster care reentry.

The Resounding Resiliency of Grandfamilies also highlights opportunities to help improve the financial situation of grandfamilies – from empowering caregivers to reach their financial goals, to seeking ways to build the capacities of caregivers’ social and family networks to financially support grandfamilies, to continuing to learn more about the financial lives of grandfamilies.

To learn more about the financial lives of the 2.7 million grandfamily caregivers in America, download The Resounding Resilience of Grandfamilies. To contribute to our knowledge about grandfamilies, share a story with us about a grandfamily in your community.

Looking Back Part 3

Itta Bena, Mississippi

And the countdown continues. We’re less than two weeks away from honoring the 2014 Best Intergenerational Community Award winners: The Greater Phoenix Region, Arizona; City of Parkland, Florida; Reston, Virginia and Village of Shorewood, Wisconsin.

These four winners are examples of communities across America that are developing innovative practices, programs and policies to solve challenges that benefit people of all ages.

Intergenerational communities thrive because they build strong, supportive communities with fresh solutions to challenges that help people of all ages. They advance policies and practices that both acknowledge and promote intergenerational interdependence.

Last week, we highlighted a few past winners from 2012 and 2013. The week before that, we featured our inaugural winners from 2012. In the weeks leading up to our March 25 event, we’ll continue sharing our past winners’ stories. This is the final part of this series that shows why age-intentional strategies are important.

Introducing…Itta Bena, Mississippi; Montgomery County, Maryland and Westchester County, New York (2013 winners).

Montgomery County, Maryland

Despite having just under 2,000 residents, Itta Bena, Mississippi has an outsize vision for its future. The tiny town, located in west central Mississippi, believes it can create “a healthy, thriving college town with positive and deep connections, trust and collaboration among Itta Bena residents of all ages and among Mississippi Valley State University.”

And based on the evidence of the past few years, achieving that vision should be a slam dunk.  

Intergenerational connections have always been an important element of Itta Bena’s culture. In 2009, the community ramped up its intergenerational efforts when it joined the National Network of Communities for All Ages, an initiative of The Intergenerational Center at Temple University.

In so doing, the community formalized its commitment to achieving a better way of life for people of every age.

Thinking intergenerationally may be old hat to Montgomery County, Maryland, but nothing about its intergenerational programs and initiatives are old or outdated. This is a community where new ideas and ways to integrate the generations are continually being sought and implemented.

It’s been 30 years since the county executive formed the Intergenerational Committee to advocate and plan for a system in which older adults and younger generations could enhance each other’s lives.

Montgomery County, Maryland

That committee led to the formation of the Montgomery County Intergenerational Resource Center, a partnership that included the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Montgomery County Public Schools, and Interages, a nonprofit.

This was the first time in Montgomery County history that a nonprofit, the public schools and county government joined together to make a difference in the community.

And what a difference such collaboration has made.

Today, this highly diverse county of almost one million residents offers myriad ways for all generations to connect with each other.

Take it from the horse’s mouth: Westchester County, New York is a good place to grow up and grow older … together. Whether you live in the county’s rural northern section or its big-city southern region, you’re sure to feel at home, no matter what your age.

This community really knows the value of intergenerational living; they’ve been at it for quite a while now – more than 16 years. It also is a master at bringing groups together to continually find new ways to improve life for all. 

Westchester, New York

Westchester boasts more than 40 intergenerational programs – shared site, individual on-site, and four Communities for All Ages based on the model developed by The Intergenerational Center at Temple University.

With its strong public/private network of motivated individuals, not-for-profits, United Way, a private foundation, and government funders, it’s no wonder that Westchester stands out as a model for how to enhance collaboration across sectors, build leadership of civic engagement of all ages, increase social cohesion among the generations, and address a broad range of critical concerns from a lifespan perspective.

Read the full community profiles here.  

MetLife Foundation and Generations United Announce 2014 Best Intergenerational Communities

They are places that folks of all ages proudly call home because they recognize the benefits of  intergenerational programs, practice, policies and services. Please join us in applauding the recipients of the 2014 MetLife Foundation/Generations United Best Intergenerational Communities Award: Maricopa County, AZ; City of Parkland, FL; Reston, VA and Village of Shorewood, WI. In addition, kudos go to the 2014 National Finalists: Miami Gardens, FL and Rye, NY. Stay tuned to learn more about each community and our upcoming event on March 25 to celebrate the award winners.