We are 1 year old! Kinship Alliance Australia was registered as a not-for-profit company on 18 December 2024. We have come a long way since then. See The Year in Review in our December newsletter.
Happy New Year to all Australian kinship care families, wherever you are, whatever your identity, whatever the relationships between children and adults in your family.
We’re looking forward to a dynamic year working with your ideas and with Federal Parliament towards improved support for all of Australia’s kinship families.
We how have 87 grandparent/kinship carer support groups listed. Please let us know if you know of one that we haven’t found yet.
Contact us anytime with your ideas and questions.
Kinship Alliance Australia
Kinship Alliance Australia is here for ALL kinship carers:
* Headed by grandparents, other relatives, & people known to the child through friendship or community connection.
* Informal and formal (statutory)
* Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous
* In all States and Territories.
Vision
A country that provides support to all children in kinship care and their caregivers as needed to ensure they can thrive and achieve their life goals.
Mission
To ensure adequate support for all Australian kinship carers and children in their care, and to raise awareness and advocate for policy changes that recognise and address their needs.
Voices of carers and young people
I never thought it as a form of care. I just thought I was going to stay with Nana or Grandad for this long time and that’s it. It didn’t seem weird or strange to me anyway … I still went to the same school, the same sort of things. Still had that same sense of stability, constancy. It was just a different location that you lived, a different person you lived with. (David, 21)
[What do people need to know about young kinship carers?]
That we exist. And that it’s not just grandparents taking care of children. (Mandy, older sister, 30)
She may not be a blood family but who says blood is needed to make a family? They say friends come and go but family is forever. If you’ve had friends who have stuck by you through the worst then personally in my eyes they are family. (Oscar, 19)
We love caring for all the children and see them develop and gain confidence. It is not an easy path at times but it is not dull! Kinship care seems to be the ‘Cinderella’ of care, so I hope your research project might help these people. (Grandmother survey respondent)
Join Kinship Alliance Australia
Grandparent and other kinship carers, support workers and other individuals are invited to become Supporters of the Alliance. Organisations and Support Groups are invited to join as Affiliates. Supporters and Affiliates receive the quarterly newsletter and may be invited to participate in awareness-raising activities including meetings with the Parliamentary Friends of Grandparent and Kinship Carers.There is no cost. Join us!