Kansas Caregivers Support Network

09/11/2026

📋✅ Imagine getting a phone call today asking if a child you love can come live with you.

❓Where will they sleep?
❓Can you enroll them in school?
❓Who can consent to medical care?
❓What about childcare tomorrow morning?
❓Do you have a car seat? Clothes? Another bed?
❓Can you afford to miss work while you figure all of this out?

For many kinship caregivers, there aren't months of preparation before a child joins their household. Life can change very quickly - and the practical questions begin almost immediately.

Behind every "they stepped up" is often a caregiver trying to figure out a hundred things at once. Supporting kinship families means helping with what comes after the yes.

💙Kansas Caregivers Support Network (KCSN): Provides individualized support, advocacy, resource navigation, education, and guidance for kinship caregivers as they navigate the needs of the children in their care. Visit our Training Dashboard (https://ks-s-site-3baa.thinkific.com/) for a list of available trauma-informed trainings.

💙Kansas Family Advisory Network (KFAN): Provides support, education, advocacy, training, practical resources, mentorship, and encouragement to families facing difficult circumstances, including those navigating the foster care system. https://kfaninc.org/

💙Kansas Kinship Navigator Program: Through Kansas Children's Service League (KCSL) KFAN, and FosterAdopt Connect, Kinship Navigators help grandparents, relatives, and other kinship caregivers connect with resources and support available to their families. https://www.kcsl.org/what-we-do/family-support/ ; https://www.fosteradopt.org/kinship-navigator/

💙Children's Alliance of Kansas: Offers free training and resources created specifically for kinship caregivers, including Kinship Origins for families beginning their kinship journey and Kinship Path for caregivers looking for more in-depth training and connection with other kinship families. https://www.childally.org/kinship

💙Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF): Kinship caregivers may be eligible for financial assistance and other benefits depending on their circumstances. DCF can help caregivers understand what assistance may be available and how to apply. https://www.dcf.ks.gov/Pages/default.aspx

Looking for More Resources?
For links to these resources and more supports available to kinship caregivers across Kansas, visit the Children's Alliance of Kansas Community Resources for Kansas Kin Caregivers page.

09/10/2026

📣 We're looking for our next KS Family Advocate!

Some of the best support comes from someone who understands both the system and what it means to walk alongside a family through it.

Our K-PARC and KCSN programs support foster, adoptive, and kinship families across Kansas as they navigate the challenges that can come with caring for children and navigating complex systems. We're looking for someone who can meet families where they are, help them find resources and solutions, strengthen their advocacy skills, and be someone in their corner when things get hard.

Lived experience as a foster, adoptive, and/or kinship caregiver is an important part of this role, along with experience working with children and families. A degree in social work or a related field is preferred.

This statewide position offers remote/hybrid flexibility, with travel throughout Kansas and opportunities to connect with families through individual support, retreats, trainings, and outreach.

If this sounds like you, or someone you know, we'd love to hear from you!

Learn more and apply: https://fosteradopt.bamboohr.com/careers/672

09/09/2026

Join us for the Navigating Trauma with Teens virtual course on 9/14, 6- 7:30 p.m., and 9/29, 12- 1 p.m.

Parenting teenagers brings many challenges, even before you add in a history of trauma. Join us as we explore teenager basics: what is typical development vs. trauma responses, how loss & identity hit different for our teens from hard places, and a few strategies for navigating the balance between connection, boundaries, and control.

Sign up today - https://ks-s-site-3baa.thinkific.com/

09/09/2026

When you hear "kinship care," do you immediately think of foster care?

Here's a number that may surprise you:

For every 1 child in kinship foster care, an estimated 18 children are being raised by relatives outside the foster care system.

Many of these families don't have a caseworker or agency helping them navigate what comes next. They're grandparents, relatives, and other kin who stepped in because a child they love needed them.

Kinship care is happening in communities all around us - and many caregivers may not even realize there are resources available specifically for them.

This Kinship Care Month, let's make sure we're seeing the whole kinship community.

09/04/2026

September is Kinship Care Month - a time to recognize the grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, extended family members, and other caring adults who step up when children need them.

Sometimes becoming a kinship caregiver starts with a plan. More often, it starts with a phone call.

Can you take the kids?

They say yes.

But saying yes is often only the beginning.

Throughout September, we'll be talking about the strengths of kinship families, the unique challenges they face, and what meaningful support can look like - whether a family is involved with the child welfare system or simply stepped in when family needed them.

We're starting with our latest blog, Supporting Kinship Families Beyond the Yes.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4yg1kCj

09/01/2026

Registration is now open for MATCH!

There is so much more to adoption than getting through the process.

There are expectations to unpack, relationships to navigate, grief and loss to understand, support systems to build, and tools we may need along the way. Whether you are just beginning to explore adoption from foster care or have already adopted, there is always more to learn.

MATCH - Mastering Adoption through Trauma-Informed Care & Healing is a free, 8-session virtual series created by foster, kinship, and adoptive parents to help families navigate the complexities of adoption.

Together, we'll explore:

• Trauma, Loss & Grief
• Building Your Village
• Managing Expectations
• Adoptive Parents - What We Bring to the Table
• Openness in Adoption
• Tools for Your Tool Box
• Lived Experience Panel
• "No Matter What" - Commitment & Permanency

MATCH brings together trauma-informed learning, practical tools, honest conversations, and lived experience to help families look beyond the process and more deeply understand the lifelong journey of adoption.

🖥️Free | Virtual | 8 Sessions
📅October 20 -- December 8, 2026
⏰Tuesdays | 6:00--8:00 PM

Wherever you are in your adoption journey, we invite you to come learn and grow with us. Registration is open now! > https://ks-s-site-3baa.thinkific.com/

08/17/2026

WestWind Creative is hosting a Foster & Adoptive Moms Weekend Retreat starting October 23rd! A special weekend of renewal and recharge for foster & adoptive moms. Find out all the details on their website >

We know that it's hard to pour from an empty cup - and that the cups of foster & adoptive moms have A LOT of pouring to do. Because adoption and foster care is close to our heart and home, we want to give back by offering respite from the demands of the amazing work these women do every day. So this...

08/14/2026

As the new school year begins, we're exploring how trauma-informed care can help children feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Understanding what a child might be experiencing (rather than assuming misbehavior) and offering consistent, caring relationships can make all the difference in their success this year.

Click this link https://bit.ly/4codC35 to read our newest blog and find out more!

08/13/2026

TFI: The Family Initiative is hosting a virtual Respite 411. Join this evening, or two other sessions later this month!

08/05/2026

KPARC & KCSN attended the Kansas Kids Belong Foster Friendly Luau on Friday, 7/31. Our very own Kelly Tyson attended, and it was such a blast!