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.

Read more: More

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?

The hard road to grandparents visitation rights | Grandparents Rights

from caringgrandparents.com

Most people will tell you that grandparents do not have any common law rights to see their grandchildren. These people are not entirely correct. There is no basis in constitutional law as regards to grandparent visitation rights in the USA. And yet, there are cases in this country all the time where grandparents are found to be entitled to visitation rights.

It is not an easy road. In order for a grandparent to obtain such grandparents visitation rights, grandparents may have to present evidence to the court that the absence of visitation rights would be harmful or detrimental to the child’s health and welfare.

Since parents have an established elementary right to the care, custody and supervision of their child, the grandparents usually have to show that there is a satisfactory reason for the court to intervene. Therefore it can be difficult to prove such harm to the child.
Continue Reading

Related articles by Zemanta

• Do Grandparents Have Rights? (blisstree.com)
• Changing Arkansas Grandparents Rights Law (socialactions.net)
• Noah Kirkman, 12, reunites with grandparents (calgaryherald.com)
• Calgary grandparents visit with boy at centre of custody dispute (canada.com)

Where do grandparents rights come from? | Grandparents Rights

Image by roblisameehan via Flickr

Why do grandparents have legal rights? Where do they come from?

The reasons grandparents rights exist are founded in three basic legal principals. You can learn a lot more about this matter by reviewing the material available through The Custody Center but for now, here is a primer.

The concept of grandparents’ rights is derived from three basic legal approaches.
Continue Reading

MMI Quick Facts - March Issue

Image via Wikipedia

QuickFACTS is a monthly fact sheet produced by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. Its focus is the emerging market of people 50+. It is a compilation of recent news and developments on multi-generational issues that impact business and customers.

The March issue contains articles on: The Growing Grandparent Population; Planning for Phased Retirement; Caregivers: Help Needed; International Ageing and the Multi-Generational Workforce; The Joy of Pumping Iron; Older Workers Staying Put; Changing Landscape of Retirement Destination States; and 100 Year Old Athlete Wins the Gold and Sets a Record!
Read More

Health Affairs Blog-Grandparent Corps: New Primary Care Model

by Arthur Garson,Margaret Whitehead,Tracy Buni,Catherine Sommers, and Karen Rheuban.

We propose to change the paradigm of care with the creation of a new model of the health care continuum by establishing teams that begin with the patient. Patients must take greater ownership of their health (for example, reducing smoking and obesity) and also need to understand when visits to physicians are necessary and whether visits with other members of a health care team are appropriate. These teams will also include community health workers, nurses, advanced practice nurses, primary care physicians, and specialists. This model of greater training and greater responsibility leveraging members of a health care team has been articulated by generalist physicians to address shortages in primary care, and in recognition that physicians do not need to provide all care.
Continue Reading

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.