Bronx Grannies Hold Bake Sale to Save Grandparent Apartments, Threatened by NY State Budget Cuts

BY DANIEL BEEKMAN

Some Bronx grandmothers are raising money - one cake at a time - to offset more than $300,000 in state budget cuts to the funding for their unique residence.

The bake sales are a desperate attempt to sustain programs and services, from 24-hour security to after-school tutoring, at Grandparent Family Apartments.

When it opened in 2005, the Morrisania building was the first such facility in the nation for low-income grandparents raising grandchildren.

"These cuts are going to hurt," said Annie Barnes, 68, who cares for two grandchildren. "But our grandchildren need us. We'll continue to sacrifice for them."

A handful of grandmothers gathered yesterday to discuss bake sale strategy in a bright basement room of the building, where handmade Easter bunnies and colorful mobiles decorated the halls.

Most have cared for their grandchildren since birth. Their children are absent parents - sick, murdered, missing or in jail.

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The State of Grandparents Rights

When it comes to grandparents rights different states have different standards. This is because the 2000 Troxell Supreme Court decision splintered the laws and advocates of fairness in grandparents rights have been trying to catch up ever since.

All 50 states currently have some type of “grandparent visitation” statute through which grandparents, and sometimes others (foster parents and stepparents, for example), can ask a court to grant them the legal right to maintain their relationships with loved children. But state laws vary greatly when it comes to the crucial details, such as who can visit and under what circumstances.
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Grandparents Rights » Grandparents Custody Options

Grandparents custody is occurring with greater frequency today due to many social factors. Certainly, the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren in their homes is skyrocketing.

Grandparents who take care of their grandchildren regularly, whether through a court order or because their children are unfit, may want to think about getting custody. Without legal custody, grandparents may find themselves unable to get proper medical care or take advantage of certain benefits their grandchildren may be entitled to.

There are several options to consider here:
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Grandparents Rights » Grandparents custody: what is it and why?

Image via Wikipedia
from CaringGrandparents.com

A grandparent may seek legal custody of their grandchildren for numerous reasons. The simplicity or complexity of this will depend on individual circumstances and whether or not both the parents and grandparents agree that the children should be in the custody of the grandparents.

Legal custody is awarded by the courts and is not merely a written agreement between two parties. If both parties are not in agreement, the grandparent or other relative must prove to the court that it is in the best interest of the child or children to be raised by someone other than the parent.

If neglect or abuse of a child is suspected, it should be reported to the Department of Social Services. It is also important to record and document any reasons why a child should be removed from the custody of his or her parents. This is not a decision that a court makes lightly and supporting evidence must be presented by a relative when seeking custody of a child.

When a person or couple becomes the custodian of a child, this does not legally sever other family relationships as in the case of adoption and may be reversed at a later time when circumstances change.
Grandparents Rights » Grandparents custody: what is it and why?

Grandfamilies: A New Term on the Rise

by Jilly Prather

Today’s definition of “family” has been changing drastically in recent years with the advent of a new kind of family unit. Due to various reasons—such as parents having drug problems, the rise of divorce, an economy that has put millions out of work, and single moms who can no longer raise their own children—we now have a growing generation of grandparents who find themselves in the trenches of raising young grandchildren. This new phenomenon of parents depending on the grandparents to finish raising their children is also called “the skipped generation.”

As a grandparent, I once dreamed about my children leaving home to embark upon creating their own lives as independent people, having a home of their own, good jobs, and grandchildren for me to spoil and send home. Retirement was something I looked forward to, with travel plans and the freedom I felt I deserved after decades of raising my kids.

One evening a few months ago, I received a call from the police department asking if I could go pick up my 14-year-old granddaughter for an indefinite period. Of course I went quickly, as Sherry (not her real name) and I had a strong bond. I had always told her to call me if she ever needed me for any reason. I scooped her up in my arms and promised her that everything would be okay now—she was now with Grammy. I did what any other loving grandmother would do. When the grandchildren need to be saved from dangerous situations and they have no other adult to turn to, grandparents take over to provide the safety and love the child desperately lacks but needs in order to become a good adult.

In 2008, census statistics show that 6.6 million children lived with their grandparents. Of those children, 4.4 million lived in the home of a grandparent without any help or interaction from their parents (U.S. Census Bureau 2009). Those numbers are staggering and continue to increase yearly.

Older adults who once looked forward to growing a new nest of opportunities and goals now find themselves in the midst of having to start over again raising children. Many of these seniors live on a fixed income based on social security, disability or limited retirement funds that make suddenly having another child to support very difficult. In the 2008 census, the government reported that 482,000 grandparents lived below the poverty level before they became responsible for caring for grandchildren (U.S. Census Bureau 2009).
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Related articles

• Oklahoma's Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (oklahomawomen.blogspot.com)
• Michael Friedman, L.M.S.W: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: How to Cope and Succeed (huffingtonpost.com)
• Windsor area grandparents seek custody rights (windsorstar.com)
• Studying Role of Grandparents (usnews.com)
• More children now live with grandparents, Census reports (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

PhillyBurbs.com: More grandparents raising grandchildren

Image via WikipediaBy: GEMA MARIA DUARTE

More than 2.4 million people in the U.S. are raising their grandchildren, often with limited means.

The Christmas tree was bare. No gifts were under it. So she vowed she would never have another Christmas like that one in 1990.

Dolores Chapman was raising seven grandchildren and none of them had a gift to open. That Christmas the kids weren't allowed to go out and play with their Bristol Township neighbors.

"I felt bad," she said.

The next day, with $200, Chapman purchased gifts for her grandchildren on sale.

This Christmas, the 63-year-old grandmother is caring for three other grandchildren - a 5-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.

It's tough being a grandparent and raising grandchildren on a fixed income, she said. Of her 18 grandchildren, she's raised 10 of them.

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Elias Cohen: My Last Election? My Grandchildren’s First.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas in the Changing Aging Blog Elias S. Cohen is a legendary figure in the history of our culture's struggle to understand the importance of self-determination for all people. He reflects on the past the, the present and our shared future and offers us the insights of a true Elder: "In November two of my four grandchildren will vote for President of the U.S. and members of Congress for the first time. And I, and some of my friends and relatives may cast our votes for the last time. As Dr. Samuel Johnson said, “Depend on it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Voting in what Ithink may well be my last election certainly concentrates my mind. It feels. like making out a will---what is the bounty I leave to my grandchildren? For me, my vote will shape my legacy, the kind of country I want to leave to my grandchildren. I want to leave them a country that is not governed by ideologues and theologically based ideas, but rather by those who believe in civil rights, self-determination, respect for the widest range of belief systems, ethical principles, and evolving Constitutional law in this nation of immigrants and native born, drawn from the races and ethnic groups from around the world. I want my vote to re-establish credible and even inspiring leadership from the Office of the President as a hallmark of the most powerful position in the world. I want my grandchildren to look to the President with pride in his commitment to science and knowledge, ethical precepts, and the spirit of the law that has served us so well in the past. I want my grandchildren to live in a country whose national treasure and national conscience is devoted to preserving our countryside, our environment, and our rich variety of communities, services, and utilities. I want them to live in a country that does not squander our natural and economic resources and our unique American spirit on destructive wars, present and future. I want to leave my grandchildren a country whose government is at its best when it strikes poverty, disease, homelessness, unemployment and despair rater than a government that believes it should get out of the way of rampant and wanton economic exploitation of our markets, our environment, and the consuming public---an irrational belief in the magical hand of a free and unfettered market. And I want my grandchildren, when they to travel the world to know that they are representatives of a country viewed as a champion of human rights, equality, and opportunity rather than a country whose government’s blunders devastate countries, killing tens of thousands of civilians and causing the emigration of thousands from their homes. I want them to inherit a country whose leaders eschew “wars of choice” based upon unfounded speculations and blind strategies---a leaders who will spare them from other wars in which they and their children will be called upon to fight and pay for.Let them live in a country where they can afford to send their children to a post-high school education demanded by a technologically advanced society. Let them live in a country in which they can achieve a decent income, acquire sufficient resources capable of protecting them from unanticipated economic failure or erosion of monetary value, and protection from the economic assault of disease, disability, or chronic ailments. I want to leave them a country that will assure them a country better protected from assaults on civil liberties than the one I will die in. Next year more than five and half million of my age peers---those 75 and over will die. And over the following three years most of the rest of them will leave the voter registration rolls. For us, for them, this is the last opportunity to shape the legacy we would leave our grandchildren. This may well be my last vote for a President and Vice President of this remarkable country. In casting it, I will have my children and their children in the forefront of my thought and prayers."

H.R.6893 Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008

H.R. 6893 would amend parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act to connect and support relative caregivers, improve outcomes for children in foster care, provide for tribal foster care and adoption access, improve incentives for adoption. Passed House of Representatives, September 17 Received in Senate, September 18 Passed Senate, September 22 Presented to the President, September 26 Signed by President, October 7

Tips for grandparents raising grandchildren

from AARP Bulletin Today (Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel) A lack of experience is not generally a problem for grandparents who find themselves raising their grandchildren. They probably haven't forgotten the basics. But taking the right precautions and making all the necessary financial and legal moves without guidance can be daunting.