Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS)

Formal kinship caregivers in a large urban city

KEPS was implemented to address the needs of formal kinship caregivers in a large urban city. Its four goals are to provide kinship caregivers with:

• Education, preparation, and support focusing on concrete information relating to all aspects of the public child welfare system
• Peer support from other caregivers to help build on or strengthen the skills needed to parent the children in their care
• The skills needed to manage the behavior of the children’s birth parents
• The skills to work with line workers as a team to support case planning goals

Yolanda R. Green

• Email: yolanda.green@csulb.edu

Homework

This program does not include a homework component.

Languages

Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS) has materials available in the following languages other than English:

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed in this page).

Manual Information

There is not a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is no training information available for this program.

"What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?"

• Note: The following studies were not included in rating Kinship Education Preparation and Support on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Green, Y. R., & Gray, M. (2013). Lessons learned from the Kinship Education and Support Program (KEPS): Developing effective support groups for formal kinship caregivers. Social Work with Groups, 36(1), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/01609513.2012.698384

  Type of Study: Focus group

  Number of participants: 43

  Population:

  • Age — Mean=59 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 45% African American, 45% Latino, 5% White, and 5% Biracal
  • Gender — Not specified
  • Status —

    Participants were caregivers, child welfare workers, KEPS trainers and child welfare commission workers

  Location/Institution: California

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS) program to support the needs of formal kinship caregivers. Results indicate that the themes emergent from the focus groups were: the need for, and benefits of, support programs for formal kinship caregivers; implementation challenges; and improvements for KEPS. Limitations include that the study only reflects the perspectives of kinship stakeholders involved in the public child welfare system in one county in California, perspectives may not be representative of the national population of formal kinship families, and lack of standardized measures. Note: This article was not used in the rating process due to the lack of a control group, and also due to criteria on the Scientific Rating Scale which requires that outcome measures be reliable and valid, and administered consistently and accurately across all subjects.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.