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HSD Announces Awards for Kinship Caregiver Support Services

Funding will support kinship caregivers, reduce physical and emotional stress due to caregiving, successful aging in their community

The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce the results of the 2024 Kinship Caregiver Support Services Request for Proposals (RFP), which closed March 15, 2024, releasing $356,264 of Older Americans Act Title IIIE funding through its Aging and Disability Services (ADS) division.

In response to this RFP, HSD received five applications that requested a total of $802,751.75. The rating committee included a diverse representation in terms of gender, age, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. Three of the five applicants will receive funding—none to the full extent of their request:

“The goal of Kinship Caregivers Support Services is to support people who are raising a relative’s child,” said Mary Mitchell, director of HSD’s ADS division. “Many kinship caregivers are grandparents who frequently experience physical and emotional stress. This impacts their health and can prevent them from aging successfully in their community. The programs we’re funding have culturally- specific expertise serving Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) elders, refugees, and immigrants, who are disproportionately represented among all kinship caregivers.”

Kinship care includes relatives caring for children aged 18 or younger, on a dependency order within the child welfare system, as well as relatives caring for children not formally involved with the public welfare system. For more information about kinship care, visit the ADS Caregiver Support webpage.

Contracts will begin January 1, 2025, and organizations are eligible for renewal through the 2028 program year.

For information about this and other HSD funding opportunities, read the Notice of Funding Opportunities on the HSD Funding Opportunities webpage.