What is kinship care?

Kinship care, or family caring for family, is a natural, out-of-home placement option for children that successfully meets their need for safety, permanency and well-being. 

Impact

Better Outcomes for Children

Children in care have already experienced the trauma of being removed from their homes and families. Placing them with strangers only compounds that trauma. Placing them in the homes of relatives or fictive kin reduces the chance for further trauma, while at the same time maintains their connection to their communities and cultures.

Model

A Value for Family

As the only agency in the country that exclusively delivers services to the entire kinship triad (child, caregiver and birth family), our approach is pure kinship. We provide strengths-based, trauma-informed, culturally competent kinship care services that support stability and continuity and maintain a child's cultural identity and contact with their birth family.

Values

What Is Important to Us?

As a nationally recognized leader in kinship care services, A Second Chance, Inc., is dedicated to upholding the highest professional standards. In the service of children, we respect the families and communities we serve, as well as our own staff. This has been a priority since our inception.

How We Have Helped


ASCI has served approximately 31,000 children, 10,000 kinship caregivers and 30,000 birth parents since its founding.

Reunification

70% of our children reach reunification within the first year of service.

70%

Education

98% of our youth graduate high school, compared to the national average of 50%.

98%

Adoption

78% of our children have closed to adoption.

78%
Lived Experience
How Berty Found Support, Strength and a Second Chance with ASCI

Each month, A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI) shares the stories of the families at the heart of our work. These stories give us an opportunity to celebrate the love, resilience…

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Grandparents
Community Changemaker: Grands Stepping Up

What began as one grandmother’s search for support became Grands Stepping Up, a community helping grandparents and kinship caregivers find resources, connection and one another.

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Education
Advocating for Your Kinship Child: IEPs, 504 Plans, and School Support

When you become a kinship caregiver, you may find yourself advocating for a child in ways you never expected. Suddenly, you’re communicating with teachers, attending school meetings, reviewing grades, managing…

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Kinship Care Month
Kinship Keeps Families Connected. Are Systems Keeping Up?

This month’s NKR Brief examines the power of family connection, what research tells us about its impact and what leaders should consider as the field moves toward a more kin-first approach.

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