Urging the members of United States Congress and the Obama Administration to implement the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act in support of kinship care.

WHEREAS, Former President Bush signed the law on October 7, 2008; and

WHEREAS, This law is expected to provide nearly a half billion more in federal adoption assistance funding to the states over the next ten years; and

WHEREAS, The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act would aid citizens of the Commonwealth who have taken on the added responsibility of raising grandchildren or other children whose own parents are no longer willing or able to care for them; and

WHEREAS, Older caregivers, such as grandparents, face numerous emotional, physical, and financial challenges and are often unprepared to assume responsibility for raising relative children; and

WHEREAS, There are over 200,000 children in Pennsylvania living with a relative and over 80,000 grandparents providing primary care for their grandchild;

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania currently ranks 7th in the United States for the greatest number of children residing with relative caregivers who lack access to resources such as medical assistance, legal assistance and guidance regarding educational matters available to older relative caregivers undermine their ability to provide a child a stable, healthy and prosperous environment; and

WHEREAS, Day-care subsidies for heads of house-hold who are employed outside the home allow children to remain safe when the relative caregiver is unavailable; and

WHEREAS, Implementation of this act will create a navigation program which will increase the ability of intergenerational families to access services such as; short term case management, online resource guide and printed resource materials highlighting the services and benefits available to relative caregivers, including affordable housing, legal assistance and medical assistance and stable, affordable housing; and

WHEREAS, The Fostering Connections to Success and Adoptions Act will reduce deficits by an estimated 12 million dollars from 2009 to 2018; and

WHEREAS, Relative caregivers save the Commonwealth millions of dollars annually that would have been spent caring for the relative children had they been receiving adequate services; and

WHEREAS, Families raise children, not governmental agencies, and children raised by relative caregivers are far more successful than children raised in foster care; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Council urges the members of United States Congress and the Administration to implement the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act in support of kinship care.

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