Kinship group asks for commissioners’ help

A group lobbying to get more financial support for those raising relatives’ kids took their case to the county commission meeting Wednesday.

Nearly a dozen members of the Over-the-Rhine-based Contact Center carried signs about helping poor children, and sung songs as they walked down Main Street toward the administration building. Once there, nearly a dozen people spoke at the commission meeting about their experiences caring for others’ children and asked the commissioners for help.

“The burden is overwhelming,” said Pat Jackson who is taking care of three children belonging to relatives.

Contact Center is a non-profit community organizing agency. Its mission is to end poverty. But on Wednesday it focused on the much narrow topics of seeking help for parents in danger of losing their kids because they are poor, and increasing the amount of money allotted to those who take in relatives’ kids.

The idea is to help those children stay in homes they know rather than going into foster care.
For Jackson and the others who spoke, it’s not an easy task.

“I had to retire early (to take care of them),” Jackson said. The children she’s caring for range from 13 to 16 and all are underdeveloped.

“I’m over the income for food stamps and they eat, eat, eat,"
she said. "I’m using resources through the church and community and its still isn’t enough. I’m running back and forth to mental health appointments, psychiatrists, it’s a never ending job. I have to buy school uniforms. $245 a month isn’t enough. We need help.”

Commissioner Todd Portune said keeping children with their own relatives one of the things being focused on in recent reforms within the Hamilton County Job and Family Services. The agency also has a financial assistance program that Director Moira Weir offered to share after the meeting.