Children live with and are supported by relatives other than their birth parents for a number of reasons including abandonment, death or incarceration of one or both parents, financial problems or an abusive or neglectful home environment.  Many of the circumstances that lead to such a living arrangement can have a lasting emotional and psychological impact on the child.  

• According to the Census Bureau’s 2005 and 2006 American Community Surveys:
   
• 50% of grandparents who lived with their own grandchildren under the age of 18 were also responsible for their care. 
   
• Slightly more than 4,700 family households (6,400 grandparents), 2.0% of all family households in Pinellas County, had a grandparent living with and responsible for the care of a grandchild under the age of 18.
   
• A family household includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage or adoption.
   

• Of those grandparents living with and responsible for the care of their grandchildren:
   

•  71% were under the age of 60

• 68% were female

• 64% were married (includes separated and spouse absent)

• 59% were working

• 81% were at or above the poverty level
   

• Approximately 57% of grandchildren who were living with and under the responsibility of a grandparent also had a parent present in the household.
   

Funded Agencies:

Children’s Home – Kinship Care
Children’s Home - Kinship Services Network of Pinellas
African American Leadership Council
Sanderlin Center
 

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