Long-Term Kinship Care: Across Childhood, Transitions, and the Caregiver's Own Life

Long-term kinship care extends across many years and intersects with the caregiver's own aging. This applied course teaches structured approaches across childhood, major transitions, and the caregiver's own arc. By the end of this course you will be able to support children across childhood and adolescence in kinship care, navigate major transitions including biological parent changes, plan for the caregiver's own aging and continuity, and sustain support over decades. What you will learn: - Approaches to supporting children across childhood and adolescence including trauma considerations - Approaches to major transitions including biological parent return, school changes, or moves - Approaches to handling difficult conversations about family history - Approaches to your own aging including continuity planning if your capacity declines - Approaches to the transition into young adulthood for the child - Approaches to community and peer support for kinship caregivers - Approaches to sustaining your own life including relationships outside caregiving The course is structured around six applied modules. Each produces a written artifact: a developmental support plan, a transitions plan, a family history conversation framework, a caregiver continuity plan, a young adulthood transition plan, and a self-care reflection. This course is written for kinship caregivers in for the long arc. By the end you will have moved from year-by-year coping to a sustained, long-arc approach to caregiving and your own life.