Family KINnections provides home-based care coordination services to kinship foster families in Oklahoma County with formal Child Welfare involvement. The goals of the Family KINnections program are to increase the stability and permanency of kinship foster care placements while also promoting effective partnerships among public and private stakeholders to ensure kinship caregiver families are well supported to provide safe, nurturing homes for their children.

NorthCare’s Kinship Navigators (known as Community Resource Specialists or CRS) offer support to kinship foster families by utilizing assessment tools and in-person and over-the-phone meetings with families and DHS; this helps kinship families identify their needs and determine what services are needed to ensure the stability and well-being for children in their care. The CRS provides education to the kinship families about community resources and services and actively connects them with these resources.

The long-term impact of this project has the capacity to extend beyond the kinship family as healthier families contribute to healthy communities. Family KINnections was developed as a partnership between the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) and NorthCare.