Caregivers

Kids Central links caregivers with much-needed services and support. This includes our Kinship Care program, which assists relatives who are caring for relative children but who are not their own biological children. We understand that families come in many shapes and sizes, and by providing the right services at the right time we help diverse families thrive. Kids Central developed our program by identifying service gaps for caregivers, and we help meet these needs for families in Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion, and Sumter Counties. If you are a caregiver, please know that you are not alone.

To meet the need of the over 14,000 children cared for by relatives in Circuit 5, a comprehensive Kinship Program was created. Kids Central’s Kinship Care support services are part of multi-level prevention programming designed to keep children with family members in safe, nurturing homes. Kinship families are served in and out of the formal child welfare system. The program continues to evolve to meet the needs of the area.

Currently, the Kinship Program provides the following services: monthly support groups, continuation groups, resource direction, ACCESS Florida Assistance, Family Team Coaching, Family Finding, legal services, case management, inter-generational activities, in-home services, educational advocacy, holiday assistance, community navigators and peer mentoring.

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CONTACT KIDS CENTRAL’S KINSHIP CARE

Kinship families can be referred to the Kinship Program by anyone. The only requirement is that the relative child is residing with a relative or non-relative caregiver and the parent is not living in the home. To refer someone or get more information, please call (352) 387-3406 or email kinship@KidsCentralinc.org.

Kinship Support Groups

Each county served by the Kinship Program has a support group. The support groups run for eight weeks with short breaks in between each session. The groups offer fellowship with other relative caregivers, information on accessing assistance programs, an encouraging environment for discussing the challenges of being a relative caregiver. Each group offers complimentary childcare.

More Services
• Advocacy
• Resource Center
• Legal Assistance
• Family Finding
• Education Liaison
• Intergenerational Activities
• Family Team Conferencing
• Holiday and Back to School assistance