Free Kinship Care Support Team Meeting
Kinship Care Support Team Meeting—Thursday, April 22 6:00 p.m. at the Arcadia Valley Elementary School library.
Are you raising your grandchildren, nieces or nephews? Are you raising children not related to you? Do you have questions about this journey? If so, then we have a Kinship Care Support Team Meeting for you! The Iron County University of Missouri Extension Center and the Arcadia Valley After School 21st Century Community Learning Center will be providing another Kinship Care Meeting to cover such topics as mental health, parenting and custody issues. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 22 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Arcadia Valley Elementary library. The meeting is free for everyone.
During the first Kinship Care meeting back in February of 2020, our guest speaker was Jennifer Williams, an attorney from Poplar Bluff. She focused on custody issues and legal questions that members of the community had about raising children that were not their own. Our last meeting in March of 2021 focused on mental health for caregivers. Rebecca Weaver, the School Social Worker for the Arcadia Valley School District, provided members in attendance with a wealth of information about talking tips, services and resources that are available in our area for grandparents, aunts and uncles and others who are raising children not related to them. Brad Coleman and John Fuller, University of Missouri Extension Specialists, helped to lead the discussion and to set up a support group for future meetings. At our last meeting, Greg McBride from Southeast Missouri Behavioral Health spoke about the Show Me Hope program.
The group of parents in attendance at the first meeting decided to form a support group for Kinship Care. The focus of the Kinship Care Support Team is on setting up a support group for families that are providing help and support to those outside their immediate family. The topic for the next Kinship Care Support Meeting will be It Wasn’t Supposed to be Like This: Life as a Parenting Grandparent/Uncle/Aunt/or Guardian. The meeting will be held on Thursday, April 22 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Arcadia Valley Elementary School library.
Kinship Care Support Group leaders Brad Coleman, Cassie Wakefield, and Rebecca Weaver are looking forward to meeting with the group and facilitating lessons that can be used at home. This is a free support group that is available for anyone. You can stop by or call the Iron County MU Extension office at 573-546-7515, if you have any questions. We look forward to meeting with you at the Arcadia Valley Elementary Library on Thursday, April 22 at 6pm.
Just a reminder to the citizens of Iron County. If you would like to see programming or workshops made available to the people of Iron County through the University of Missouri Extension, please contact Brad Coleman. You can email him at HYPERLINK “mailto:colemanlb@missouri.edu” colemanlb@missouri.edu or call the office at 573-546-7515. We have programming available in nutrition and health, youth services, community economic development, agriculture, human development, horticulture, livestock and agronomy. There is a cost associated with some programs. Most of our programs are free thanks to the University of Missouri, the Iron County MU Extension Council and Iron County.
MU is an equal opportunity/ADA institution.
