Help a Family Member Feel Ready for Kinship Care
Kinship caregivers keep children close to the people they know and love. Your gift provides families with clothing, supplies, and everyday essentials when they need them most.
When Family Says Yes, You Can Make Sure Support Is Ready Too
When a child needs a safe place to go, a relative or close family friend may be the one who opens their home. Unlike traditional foster parents, kinship caregivers often step into this role in the middle of a crisis, with little time to prepare. They also don’t always receive the same financial support, services, or resources that traditional foster parents do. Kinship families can suddenly find themselves raising a child while navigating the child welfare system and responsibilities they never expected.
Having the right essentials ready can help make that transition a little easier for both the caregiver and the child.
What Families Need
Right Away
Kinship caregivers are often making room for a child before they’ve had the opportunity to gather everything that child will need. The basics can add up quickly, especially when a family is adjusting to a new situation. On that first day, children may need:
A bed of their own
Seasonally appropriate clothes that fit
Diapers
Pajamas and comfort items for the first night
A bag or suitcase to use, not a trash bag
School supplies
Other everyday
essentials
How You Can Help Kinship Families Feel Prepared
Your gift provides practical support that meets a new caregiver when they need it most.
Sweet Case
A new, sturdy duffle filled with comfort items, so a child never has to carry their belongings in a garbage bag ever again.
DELIVER A BAG OF COMFORT ITEMS
A First Night Kit
Everything a child needs for that very first night in a new home, so an unfamiliar place feels a little safer.
MAKE A FIRST NIGHT FEEL SAFER
New Clothing & Essentials
Seasonally-appropriate clothing in their size, comfortable and new.
PROVIDE BRAND NEW CLOTHING
Critical Family Support
Respond with critical resources right when children and families need it.
MAKE SURE HELP IS RECEIVED QUICKLY
Give What Is Meaningful To You
Any amount helps provide other things like backpacks & school supplies, toothbrushes & soap, and all of the little things in between.
SUPPORT KINSHIP FAMILIES
Brian and Rachel Made Room When Emma and Noah Needed Them
When newlyweds Brian and Rachel got the call that their niece, Emma, and nephew, Noah, needed a place to stay, they knew they would make room. What they didn’t know was how quickly their home would have to change. They cleared out their home office, making space for beds and everything Emma and Noah would need.
They were doing their best, but they weren’t prepared for everything they needed. Noah still needed a crib, a high chair, and bottles—things Brian and Rachel simply didn’t have on hand.
When Rachel told family and friends what they needed, people started filling the gaps. Her sister found a crib through a neighbor, a friend had a high chair they no longer used, and someone from their church put together a care package with bottles, formula, and pajamas.
With their community behind them, Brian and Rachel could focus less on what they were missing and more on helping Emma and Noah settle in.
They opened their home for their family. Their community helped make sure they didn’t have to figure out the rest alone.
Your gift can help make sure the next family who opens their home has the support they need from the very start.
Celebrate National Kinship Care Month by Giving Stable Support Families Deserve
Over 2.5 million children in the U.S. are in kinship care, staying with someone they know and trust instead of a stranger.
When a child enters foster care, kinship care means staying with someone they know and trust. A relative or close family friend can provide a familiar home while keeping them connected to their family, school, and community.
When children enter foster care, relatives often step forward to keep them connected to the people, culture, and community they already know and love. That “yes” can happen fast, and it can mean suddenly needing a bed, clothing, diapers, school supplies, or comfort items to help a child feel safe and settled.
Your gift helps Foster Love respond, so a family who just said yes doesn’t have to figure it out alone.
What Your Gift Becomes
Since 2011, we’ve helped thousands families say YES!
Your gift helps turn an unexpected transition into a home that’s ready to welcome a child.
650,000+
Sweet Cases
700,000+
Hygiene Items
15,000+
Backpacks & School Suplies
50
States Reached
A Family Said Yes to a Child in Need. Say Yes to Them.
Every two minutes, a child enters foster care somewhere in the U.S. When a family member says yes to caring for them, they often have little time to prepare. These families need people standing behind them.
Be someone who offers critical support for them today.
MAKE A GIFT THAT KEEPS FAMILIES TOGETHER
September is National Kinship Care Month
But the need doesn’t stop after the month ends.Become a monthly donor and support kinship families year-round.
BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is kinship care?
Kinship care means a relative or close family friend takes in a child who has entered the foster care system, instead of the child going to a home with strangers. They raise children they know and have a pre-existing relationship with, which helps children thrive.
Kids in kinship care homes preserve family connections and experience less trauma and more stability overall than children in traditional foster care. The arrangement offers better well-being for children and offers long-term success, including higher self-esteem, improved behavior and mental health, better educational performance, and lower risk of homelessness.
Who can become a kinship caregiver?
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, cousins, other relatives, and even close family friends (fictive kin) can all step in as kinship caregivers, depending on the child’s situation and state guidelines.
Close family friends stepping into this role are just as important as blood relatives. Judges and caseworkers often recognize these bonds because keeping a child with someone they already trust supports their well-being far more than placement with a stranger.
Is kinship care the same as foster care?
Kinship care is a type of foster care. The difference is who provides it.
In kinship care, a child stays with someone they already know, instead of an unrelated foster family.
Do kinship caregivers get the same support as foster parents?
Not always. Many kinship caregivers do not receive the same financial help or legal authority as licensed foster parents until they complete formal licensing themselves.
Support and licensing rules are managed through each state’s department of human services, so what’s available to a kinship family can vary depending on where they live.
What does a kinship family need most when a child arrives?
Basic essentials like a bed, clothing, diapers, hygiene items, and school supplies. Many families have little to no notice before a child arrives, so these needs come up fast.
How does my donation help?
Your gift funds items like Sweet Cases, First Night Kits, new clothing, and school supplies, delivered directly to kinship families so they have what a child needs right away.