Engaging Kinship Caregivers In Research and Supportive Interventions

Kinship caregivers, or those that step in to provide full-time care for children in their family or personal network when birth parents are unable to, are historically a “hard to reach” population in research and intervention programming. Yet, kinship care is a relatively common phenomenon and the preferred arrangement when children cannot remain in their home with about 2.5 million kinship caregivers nationwide. A majority of kinship families are informal kinship families, which means they are not connected to nor supported by formal child welfare systems. Therefore, engagement and support of kinship caregivers through varied community methods is crucial.

Understanding the unique demographics of kinship caregivers is also important. Caregivers are culturally diverse and more likely to represent communities of color compared to the general population. Additionally, caregivers have intersectional identities that may impact their access to resources: they are more likely to live below the poverty level, in under-resourced communities, be older, single, and female. Approaching engagement through a culturally responsive and trauma-informed lens with families and across systems is critical to meaningful outreach, participation, and retention.

This roundtable will triangulate the perspectives of caregivers, professionals, and researchers to consider: (1) the unique strengths, needs, and characteristics of kinship caregivers and their relation to research engagement; (2) common barriers and strategies to reaching and engaging kinship families in research and programming ; (3) adapting an ecological approach to kinship caregiver engagement in through individual, organizational, and systemic considerations; (4) examples of and findings for successful kinship caregiver engagement nationwide.

We will facilitate a conversation about engaging kinship caregivers in the community across the research process, including outreach, in-take/consent processes, participation in programming and study activities, and after-care coordination. First, a researcher and non-profit director from Ohio will provide an overview of general characteristics of kinship caregivers- including their unique needs and strengths- and define caregiver engagement from an Ecological Systems Theory approach. Then a non-profit director from Nevada will highlight common barriers and key strategies to recruiting and retaining kinship families in research and programming. Mixed methods data from kinship family intervention studies, including caregiver feedback will be highlighted by a researcher in North Carolina. Two kinship caregivers with diverse backgrounds will share their own experiences with participating in research and programming in the community, including the importance of trust, felt safety, and responsive methods of support.

The goal for this session is to have an open and honest dialogue about key components for engaging kinship caregivers through culturally responsive approaches to overcome common barriers for a largely underserved population. The voices of those with lived experience will be highlighted through community members, as well as other panelists, all of whom have personal experience with kinship care. Implications for practice, policy, and research will be discussed including researchers, interventionists, and caregivers' perspectives. We hope attendees will walk away with keep points of reflection and practical strategies for engaging hard to reach populations- particularly kinship families- in their work.