Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Going to visit grandparents for a weekend or summer was always a treat. Getting to see the elders of the family, especially if they didn’t live close by, was exciting for kids of all ages.
Those were the good old days.
In recent years, there has been a change in the family dynamic. More children are being raised by their grandparents. In response to this change, the State of West Virginia established several programs to help grandparents in this situation, and Pocahontas County Family Resource Network is here to help share those programs.
FRN Community Outreach Specialist Anna Cassell said there are 35,000 children in West Virginia who are being raised by grandparents. That’s just the ones that have been documented.
“Other studies have shown that it’s probably closer to forty-three thousand,” she said.
Cassell explained that the discrepancy in the two numbers is most likely due to grandparents who are afraid to say they are raising their grandchildren because they don’t want them taken away by the state.
The FRN is not in the business of taking away children. It is in the business of helping guardians make sure the children get everything they need. That is why they have the Grandfamilies Programs in place in Pocahontas County.
“The Grandfamilies Programs do a lot with helping them parent in the 21st century,” Cassell said. “There’s a lot of crisis help. We do discussion groups in supportive work services for assessment and then you get a social worker for six months after the program. The social worker helps you keep up, and basically what we do is help them find the resources that they don’t know are available.”
One of the main issues Grandfamilies have is funding. Most grandparents are on a fixed income and/or retirement and worry about the new costs of raising young children.
“We see a lot that need financial help,” Cassell said. “We can’t always provide financial help in the form of paying a bill or something like that, but we can get them a food box. We have diapers and pull-ups on site. We’ve bought car seats for Grandfamilies. We’ve bought clothes and beds for kids that need them.
“Our job as a resource center is to look for places that can help – whether it’s through Community in Schools if they’re school-aged kids – or Project Christmas for Christmas gifts,” she added.
The FRN also has contact with other organizations and professionals – including lawyers – who can help grandparents with any issues they face while raising their grandchildren.
In order to make sure all Grandfamilies in Pocahontas County know about these programs, the FRN will host an open house Tuesday, July 23, at 1 p.m., at McClintic Library.
A representative from West Virginia’s Temporary Assistance for Need Families – TANF – program will be at the event, as well as FRN staff to help grandparents learn more about state-funded programs and the things they can get from FRN itself.
“A lot of it is just making sure they have the resources not only for these kids to thrive, but for grandparents, too,” Cassell said. “These grandparents are tired. They’ve raised their kids, and now they’re taking care of more kids and possibly great-grandkids at some point.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that kids are taken care of,” she continued. “We want to see that the kids are healthy and thriving and that grandparents are, too. That’s the best thing about this program.
“It’s not just focused on the child. It’s focused on making sure a grandparent has everything they need.”
