By Joan F. Simoneau, Community Reporter
Marlborough – More than 250 people recently attended the Sixth Annual Conference for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren held at the Best Western Royal Plaza hotel. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, the conference was a way to foster education, networking, research programs and support to grandparents and relatives who assume this responsibility. Community providers and supporters participated in the event with workshops on a variety of pertinent issues.
Keynote speaker Jarrett J. Krosoczka, an award winning children’s book author-illustrator, said to those gathered that he attributed much of his success to his grandparents who took him in at three years old and gave him an opportunity to see a different life for himself. When he was in the sixth grade, he said, his grandparents enrolled him in art classes at the Worcester Art Museum which enriched his learning the arts. Throughout his successes, he said he has never forgotten where he came from and who helped him get to where he is. He established the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarship at the museum to help fund classes for children.
In July 2008 the Child Advocate Bill was signed into law which included the establishment of the Commission on the status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, calling for a permanent commission of 15 individuals who had demonstrated a commitment to grandparents.
Kerry Bickford is a commissioner who enjoys the program and qualifies for it through her being a grandparent raising young children. She and her husband, Rick, had three children.
“They were all grown up and on their own and we thought we were going to become empty nesters,” she said, “but we started raising [granddaughter] Kaileigh when she was three years old and enjoyed it.”
Shortly thereafter they provided a home for JJ.
“He was just a year old and we expected it to be temporary but he has been ours for the past 11 years. At first it didn’t feel like they were our kids but that changed quickly,” she said proudly.
The number of children being raised by relatives has increased by 55 percent since 2010 in Massachusetts, and the majority of these kinship caregivers are grandparents, according to the commission. The opioid crisis has been a major factor in the increase in kinship care, as many who suffer from addiction or die from opioid-related causes are parents of young children. To learn more about the challenges confronting kinship caregivers visit www.massgrg.com.