Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / April 2008

I got this by email today.  There is no URL, but plenty of contact
information.This situation is ludicrous:

<Kinship caregivers currently receive $245 per month for the first
grandchild, with only $91 for a second grandchild.  <n contrast,
foster care providers receive anywhere from $9 to $118 per day for
each child in their care. (Source: <DJFS) Once placed in foster care,
children are far more likely to stay in foster care, further
increasing the cost to t<axpayers, as opposed to family placements.

I'll be at the HB 7 hearing tomorrow afternoon at the statehouse.  If
I've got everything in place for that, I'll be attending the rally.

Marley

OHIO EMPOWERMENT COALITION
April 28, 2008
For Immediate Release

Contact Persons:
•    OEC Organizer: Lynn Williams, 1-877-862-5179
•    NE Ohio: Diana King, OEC Acting Chair, or Tim Walters,
Community Organizer, United Clevelanders Against Poverty (UCAP),
Cleveland, 216-631-5800
•    Central Ohio: Mark Stansbery, Community Organizing Center,
Columbus, 614-252-9255
•    SE Ohio: Marty Zinn, 740-594-3533 or Lyda Gunter, 740-767-4950
•    SW Ohio: Cassandra Barham, Contact Center, 513-381-4242
•    Dayton (OEC and SPAN-OH spokesperson, Logan Martinez, Miami
Valley Full Employment Council, 937-275-7259

“Safe & Stable Families Campaign for
Kinship Care, Poverty Reduction & Health Care”
March / Rally at Statehouse
<
The Ohio Empowerment Coal<ition will hold a March and Rally on
Wednesday, April 30, from 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. to draw attention
to the needs of thousands of grandparents and others across Ohio who
are providing the unsung work of Kinship Care.  The march will begin
at 11:15 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 E. Broad St., and
proceed to the High Street side of the Statehouse.  The Rally itself
will begin at 11:45 a.m. on the West Plaza of the Statehouse.

The Ohio Empowerment Coalition is urging State policymakers to
increase the income support for kinship caregivers to be more
comparable to what foster care providers receive. We are asking for an
increase in Ohio Works First (OWF) child-only benefit checks (kinship
care payments).  OWF is mostly funded with federal Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money, not state money.

Kinship caregivers currently receive $245 per month for the first
grandchild, with only $91 for a second grandchild.  In contrast,
foster care providers receive anywhere from $9 to $118 per day for
each child in their care. (Source: ODJFS) Once placed in foster care,
children are far more likely to stay in foster care, further
increasing the cost to taxpayers, as opposed to family placements.
Main speakers include grandparents from Cincinnati, Athens and
Cleveland who are providing kinship care to their grandchildren
instead of having the children placed in foster care.

"The staggering rise in the cost of living already straps our regional
families
to the point of merely surviving. How can we ask grandparents...many
of whom are on fixed incomes, to provide for these additional children
on the small stipend provided by public assistance," states Lyda
Gunter, a kinship caregiver in Morgan County.

The Ohio Empowerment Coalition will conclude our rally with a walk in
support of the “Cover the Uninsured Week”.  Ohioans are dying each
week due to lack of health care, including our own members of the Ohio
Empowerment Coalition.  In light of this, at 12:15 p.m. the Ohio
Empowerment Coalition will join with SPAN-OH members to walk to the
Ohio Association of Health Plans at 230 E. Town Street. We will
remember those who have died because they lacked health care in our
State.

The Ohio Empowerment Coalition is a statewide coalition of low-income
people who work collaboratively to bring about economic and social
justice through direct action organizing and civic participation.