On Sunday, September 13, 2020, we celebrate National Grandparents Day. It gives us the opportunity to publicly affirm the identity and importance of grandparents and acknowledge that they do play a vital role in families. In Pennsylvania, over 80,000 grandparents are caring for over 100,000 grandchildren, a number fast increasing due to the opioid crisis, death, incarceration, and addiction. SeniorLAW Center is proud to serve and represent grandparents and other elders raising grandchildren when birth parents cannot – a daunting task which changes the lives of children at risk and keeps them in loving homes of kin and out of foster care. Kids thrive in kinship.
Your support helps client like Cynthia Jones, who is raising her great granddaughter. Cynthia says this about her journey into becoming the primary caretaker of her great-grandchild, pictured here. “My granddaughter came to live with my wife and me when she was five months pregnant. She had the baby in the fall. We wanted to help her but she was using drugs, disrespectful and was a financial drain. She had to leave my home. She left but returned and told us she was living in a car. We agreed to keep the baby for her. I knew I had to file for custody. I went to SeniorLAW Center for help and SeniorLAW Center represented me in court and I got custody. Once after a visit, when she returned the baby to me, the baby smelled like marijuana. Her father hasn’t been involved at all. I’m in contact with her mother but she is not visiting her daughter consistently. I’ve been raising my 5 year old great granddaughter and she is a joy.”
Consider making a donation in honor of a grandparent or senior loved one, by clicking here.
SeniorLAW Center is proud to provide legal assistance, education, advocacy and supportive services for grandparents in Pennsylvania who are raising children. To learn more about our Pursuing Justice for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in PA Project, click here.
If you are a grandparent or great-grandparent in Pennsylvania with a legal question or issue, call our Pennsylvania SeniorLAW HelpLine at 1-877-PA SR LAW for free legal assistance and information.
For information about an upcoming free CLE for attorneys concerning Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in light of the opioid crisis and COVID-19, click here.