Sonoma Kinship Center opens in Santa Rosa

Submitted material
On Friday, April 27, the Sonoma Kinship Center, located at 411 King St., Santa Rosa, had a grand opening to announce the beginning of programs managed by Sunny Hills Services to serve relative caregivers and the children they have agreed to raise as an alternative to out-of-home placement in Sonoma and the North Bay Counties.
This facility has been made possible by two years of fundraising and planning by KINS (Kinship Initiative Network of Services), a collaborative spearheaded by the Junior League of Napa-Sonoma, Sunny Hills Services, Grandparents Parenting Again and adjunct partner Sonoma County Department of Human Services-Family, Youth and Children’s Division. The Steering Committee of KINS will serve as an Advisory Committee to support the new Kinship Center,
With the assistance of Assemblywomen Noreen Evans, Karen Bass and the collaborative, Sonoma County applied for and received $ 270,000 this spring from the state legislature to provide a wide range of KSSP (Kinship State Service Program) services. These will be under the direction of Barry Feinberg LCSW, Chief Operating Officer of Sunny Hills Services and Ms. Susie McGavin, MFT (Marriage Family Therapist) with community workers and trained volunteers from the Junior League of Napa-Sonoma. Together they will work with a variety of community organizations to provide: respite care, peer support, relative resource workshops, emergency assistance, guardianship clinics, educational advocacy, legal referrals, homework and tutoring assistance and mental health services.
To date, the Junior League has raised money for the Center in excess of $ 65,000 and will provide $20,000 more in May, at their annual dinner, in addition to hundreds of volunteer hours already given. It is their Signature Project and will allow them to positively impact the lives of children who are being raised by relatives, whether they are grandparents, aunts or uncles, older siblings or other family members. It is the goal of the Junior League, through funding support and coordinated efforts and working with professionals, that crucial services will be provided not only for the benefit of these children who are considered “at risk” but also to the families who agree to raise them. Currently, it is estimated that there are more than 4,000 children in Sonoma County being raised by family members other than their biological parents.
Kinship care is the full-time care, nurturing, and protection of children by relatives, members of their families, or any adult who has a kinship bond with a child. Kinship services support the concept of children residing with a relative in a family setting rather than being placed in an out-of-home placement.
For more information about available services or to tour the facility please visit www.SonomaKinship.org or call 707.569.0877.