Thousands of Arizona grandparents step to plate to raise grandkids

When drugs, incarceration or mental illness invade a home, grandparents are often left to care for little ones.

In Arizona, 52,000 grandparents are raising grandchildren.

"I have yet to meet a grandparent whose life goal was to raise their grandchildren, but they step up to the plate to keep families together,'' Pima County Juvenile Court Commissioner Suzanna Cuneo said Friday at the KARE Family Center's fifth-anniversary Town Hall Meeting.

The Kinship, Adoption, Resource and Education center formed five years ago in response to growing numbers of grandparents and other kin raising children.

Cuneo said KARE, 4710 E. 29th St., Building 7, offers grandparents support they need to keep children out of foster care.

"It saves us all money and it's the best way to go,'' she said.

Supporters at the town hall, including state Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, said it is critical that the Arizona Legislature double the $1 million budgeted for the Grandparent Stipend Program, offering temporary financial assistance to older caregivers.

Grandparents told stories of heartbreak and success at the meeting.

"Without KARE, I was lost,'' said Jessie Hetherington, 65, who with her husband, George, 67, adopted her 9-year-old grandson Kyle.

"I didn't know where to go or what to do or what services to get or how to get them,'' she said.

Hetherington now gives back as an advocate to other grandparents.

Manuel G. Romero said he was proud to be a founding member of KARE. He said he rescued his two grandsons from the streets of Agua Prieta, Son., after the boys' parents went to prison.

Today his grandsons, Manuel, 17, and Salvador, 14, are good students and U.S. citizens, he said.

Maria Diaz, 56, was encouraged by her granddaughter Lyra, 7, to overcome her fear of public speaking and tell her story at the town hall.

"I'm so happy I found this place,'' Diaz said. "Here you find family support and all kinds of help. You have no idea the difference you make to us and our grandkids.''

Fred Chaffee, of Arizona's Children Association, told grandparents their work to get KARE started five years ago "dropped a pebble in the water and the ripples are waves.'' KARE, with co-directors Laurie Melrood and Mary Blessington, serves as a model for national centers, he said.

David Berns, former director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, heads child and family services for the Casey Family Programs.

"You are the best child welfare system in the country, and you probably should be the only child welfare system in the country,'' Berns told the group.

"Grandparents and other relatives truly are the way we're going to keep kids and families together and keep families strong,'' he said.