Our friendly Kinship team can help you with practical support to get your kinship peer support group up and running. From training to advice and more.
Section 1C: Planning your kinship support group
Helping you to start planning your group – from thinking about the time commitment to who your group is for. Some key questions to get started.
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What you need to think about before you start your group
If you’re thinking of starting a kinship support group, it sounds like you know there’s a need. And others out there will be in the same position. Sharing your time to help bring other kinship carers together is a commitment worth making.
You’ll build your support group in your local area or virtually as a community of other kinship carers. It should be a group that makes sense to you and the other kinship carers who join.
We’ll be honest – sometimes it might feel hard. People are complex. As a kinship carer, your life might feel even more challenging at times. That’s ok. You need to be kind to yourself.
Starting your journey: questions to ask yourself
So you’ve decided you can make a difference to other kinship carers’ lives and your own by setting up a kinship group.What next? How do you go about thinking about a group, to making your new community a reality?
A good place to start is to ask yourself some practical questions about the potential group you are looking to set up. Grab a pen and paper and consider the following questions:
- Is there already a kinship group in your area? Start by using our postcode search tool.
- Is there a demand for a kinship group where you live? Have you met other kinship carers locally who would benefit from support?
- Do you have the time to commit to starting, running, and making a kinship group a success?
- What kind of group would you like to run? In-person, online or hybrid (a mix)? Read more about types of kinship groups.
- Is your group for all kinship carers, or a specialist group, for example:
- kinship carers with a special guardianship order
- kinship foster carers (formerly known as family and friends foster carers)
- Black kinship carers
- kinship carers bringing up their siblings
- single parent carers
- or perhaps, men or women carers only
Some of your answers you might not be able to answer straight away. That’s OK. But if you have a feeling that a group is needed and you have the time to get stuck in, then we are here to help you make that happen.
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