Kinship Navigator Services

What is Kinship Navigator?

According to the Urban Institute and U.S. Census, about 2.3 million children in the U.S. live with relatives with the majority of these children (1.76 million) being in informal kinship care through a family arrangement. The Kinship Navigator program was developed to respond to the perceived needs of kinship caregivers due the growth in kinship families, who often have the least financial resources and highest social service needs.

The Kinship Navigator program is federally funded by the Children’s Bureau and came from the passage of the Fostering Connections and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 signed by President Barack Obama. The funding is for a three-year demonstration project to assess the effectiveness of Kinship Navigators as a model in working with kinship families and includes an evaluation component. The demonstration project is design to determine how increased knowledge of available support services, access to these services, and better coordination of services through community collaborations, impacts safety, permanency, and well-being for kinship families.

Contact Us

For relative caregivers:
1-877-YMCA-4-KIN

For professionals:
1-877-YMCA-4-KIN
or complete this referral form and fax it to 619-543-9491

If you have general questions about kinship services, please call 619-543-9850, ext. 116 or send us an email at kinshipyfs@ymca.org.