Kinship in Care

When children and youth live with and are cared for by members of their family, kin, a family friend or someone in their community, this is referred to as a kinship arrangement.

Kinship arrangements support children and youth to maintain connection to their family and heritage, help them remain in their community, support their identity, and help them maintain their ethnicity, culture, and family traditions.

Kinship in Care is when a child or youth has come into the care of a Children’s Aid Society and is living in a kinship arrangement.

Once potential caregivers have been found, they are assessed to understand their ability to meet the needs of a child, as if they were the parents in the interim and long term if needed. The goal is to reconnect the child with their parents as quickly as possible, but the hope is that if the child cannot return to their biological parents, the kinship caregiver/family will be a permanent home for the child.

Kinship in Care caregivers must meet the same requirements as foster caregivers and adoption applicants, which includes:

• Home visits by a Children’s Aid Society worker
• Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE): This home study is a comprehensive assessment to determine your eligibility, suitability, and readiness to become a foster parent.
• Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education (PRIDE): This mandatory provincial 27-hour training program is taken by all prospective foster parents in Ontario.