By Sheila Rentfrow, Kentucky Kinship Resource Center Program (KKRC) Manager, and Rachael Petrey, KKRC program coordinator.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (September 30, 2026) – As September comes to a close, so does National Kinship Care Month—a time dedicated to recognizing the grandparents, relatives, and close family friends who step forward to raise children when their parents cannot.
While the month may be ending, the work of kinship caregivers continues every day.
For many people, kinship care may seem like a private family matter. After all, isn’t it simply family taking care of family? Some of us may even question whether the apple truly does fall far from the tree?
The reality is far more complex.
Imagine for a moment: your phone rings.
On the other end is a social worker asking whether you are willing to take in your grandchild, niece, nephew, sibling, cousin, or another child you love so they can remain with someone they know.
You weren’t expecting the call. You weren’t planning to raise a child at this point in your life. Maybe you had vacation plans or retirement plans. Now, you have no idea what tomorrow will look like.
Yet before the conversation ends, you find yourself saying yes.
Not because you’re ready.
Not because you have all the answers.
But because a child needs you.
As you hang up the phone, the questions begin:
Where will they sleep tonight?
Who will stay home tomorrow to enroll them in school?
Do they have clothes? Medication? A favorite blanket?
How are we going to make this work? We’re barely getting by as it is.
One phone call. Ten minutes. One decision that changes everything.
For many kinship caregivers, this is how the journey begins. For others, it starts with a call from a family member or a growing realization that a child needs someone to step forward.
And it is happening every day across Kentucky.
Kinship care occurs when a child is raised by someone other than their parent, such as grandparent, aunt, uncle, adult sibling, cousin, or trusted family friend. In Kentucky, an estimated 55,000 children are being raised in kinship families.
These caregivers provide stability, safety, love, and belonging during some of the most difficult moments in a child’s life. They help children remain connected to familiar people, communities, traditions, and a sense of identity during a time of uncertainty and loss.
Yet many open their homes and hearts with little time to prepare and limited support.
Some are becoming parents for the first time. Others thought their years of raising children were behind them. Many are balancing careers, retirement, fixed incomes, health concerns, legal challenges, and complex family relationships all while helping a child adjust and heal.
Too often, they are expected to navigate these challenges without a roadmap.
Imagine trying to figure out custody paperwork, school enrollment, childcare, healthcare, financial assistance, counseling, and transportation while simultaneously helping a child adjust to a completely new reality.
That is why the Kentucky Kinship Resource Center exists.
To help caregivers find answers when they don’t know where to turn. To offer guidance when the next step feels unclear. To ensure they do not have to navigate the journey by themselves.
Through Kinship Navigators, Peer Support Specialists, Community Support Groups, educational opportunities, webinars, and community resource connections, we help caregivers access information, services, and support that strengthen families.
Whether a caregiver needs help finding information about custody options, locating financial assistance, connecting with local resources, or simply speaking with someone who understands the experience, we help them identify a path forward.
But our work is about more than connecting people to resources.
It is about recognizing the extraordinary commitment kinship caregivers make every day.
It is about ensuring that grandparents who thought they had finished raising children feel seen and supported.
It is about helping relatives and close family friends know that help is available and that asking for it is okay.
It is about creating opportunities for caregivers to connect, learn, and encourage one another.
But most importantly, it is about children.
Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving home. When kinship caregivers step forward, they provide more than shelter. They offer continuity, connection, and a sense of belonging when so much else has changed.
So why should kinship care matter to all of us?
Because these families are part of every community in Kentucky.
The child being raised by a grandparent may sit beside your child at school.
The caregiver may be your coworker, neighbor, friend, or fellow church member.
Kinship families are not someone else’s families.
They are our families, living in and strengthening our communities.
And while love is often what brings a child into a kinship home, love alone cannot navigate court hearings, pay for childcare, resolve school enrollment challenges, or address the effects of trauma.
Support matters.
When caregivers have support, they are better equipped to provide the stability and care children need to thrive.
That is why recognizing kinship families cannot end when September does. It means listening to caregivers, helping them find support, and understanding that stepping forward for a child should not mean facing every challenge alone, or facing each day with uncertainty.
As we close out National Kinship Care Month, we celebrate the thousands of kinship caregivers across Kentucky who picked up the phone, had the conversation, and stepped up to make the decision when a child needed them most.
National Kinship Care Month may last only thirty days, but at the Kentucky Kinship Resource Center, our commitment to kinship families continues every day of the year.
Because when we support kinship caregivers, we support children, strengthen families, and strengthen our communities because after all, the apple really shouldn’t fall far from the tree.