Allison Lightner, program coordinator of Grand Family Success Center of the Children’s Home Society in Lawrenceville. Photo by Michelle Dryden.
Jennie Negron-Bethea a kinship grandparent and member of the GFSC group speaks about how the program benefits her family. Photo by Michelle Dryden.
Members of GFSC listen to the staff and participate in a brainstorming session that explore ways to sustain future funding for the program. Photo by Michelle Dryden.
By Michelle Dryden
The staff and members of Grand Family Success Center (GFCS), a kinship organization, deliberated at their meeting July 8, 2015 as they brainstormed sources for future funding of their grandparents and childrens support initiative.
Recently, GFCS received notice from their funding source, The Nicholson Foundation, that it would no longer fund the GFCS after December 31, 2015. As a result, the staff and the group of caregivers, who are mostly grandparents, have been researching ways and means to continue the services of this resourceful kinship group. They will need a new home location and funding to keep the community services and resources available.
The GFCS is a program under The Children’s Home Society of New Jersey agency. This support group assists kinship families, who are caregivers for children of family members who are not able to financially, emotionally, mentally, or otherwise able to take care of their own children.
As the group deliberated about how to raise funds, members also expressed reasons why they really need the program to continue over the next years.
