Home Program

Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS)

Note: The Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS) program was not responsive to the CEBC's inquiry. The following information was obtained from publicly available sources.

Topic Areas
Scientific Rating
Child Welfare Relevance
Kinship Caregiver Support Programs
NR  — Not able to be Rated
High

About This Program

Target Population: Formal kinship caregivers in a large urban city

Program Overview

KEPS was implemented to address the needs of formal kinship caregivers in a large urban city. Its four goals are to provide kinship caregivers with:

  • Education, preparation, and support focusing on concrete information relating to all aspects of the public child welfare system
  • Peer support from other caregivers to help build on or strengthen the skills needed to parent the children in their care
  • The skills needed to manage the behavior of the children’s birth parents
  • The skills to work with line workers as a team to support case planning goals

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS).

Manuals and Training

Publicly available information indicates there is some training available for this program.
See contact info below.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Green, Y. R., & Gray, M. (2013). Lessons learned from the Kinship Education and Support Program (KEPS): developing effective support groups for formal kinship caregivers. Social Work with Groups, 36(1), 27-42. doi:10.1080/01609513.2012.698384

Type of Study: Focus group
Number of Participants: 43

Population:

  • Age — Mean=59 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 45% African American, 45% Latino, 5% White, and 5% Biracal
  • Gender — Not specified
  • Status — Participants were caregivers, child welfare workers, KEPS trainers and child welfare commission workers

Location/Institution: California

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
This study examines the effectiveness of the Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS) program to support the needs of formal kinship caregivers. Results indicate that themes emergent from the focus groups were: the need for, and benefits of, support programs for formal kinship caregivers, implementation challenges, and improvements for KEPS. This study is limited in that it only reflects the perspectives of kinship stakeholders involved in the public child welfare system in one county in California, and thus these perspectives may not be representative of the national population of formal kinship families

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Additional References

No reference materials are currently available for Kinship Education Preparation and Support (KEPS).

Contact Information

Yolanda R. Green, PhD
Email:

Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: January 2017

Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: March 2017

Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: March 2017