Our Focus: Kinship Care
You likely know someone who was raised by grandparents, an aunt or family friend. Or maybe you know the adult who took a child into their home. This is called kinship care – loved ones caring for a child when the parents are unable to do so.
The number of children being raised by extended family is growing 6 times faster than the general population.
Kinship caregivers face emotional and financial challenges when they take a child in. And that’s why HALOS exist. To provide resources for families and to bring together our community to empower families.
With your support, kinship families can access the services they need to take care of the children they take in. Children fare much better with family than in foster care, but they need your help.
Kinship care helps children maintain familial and community bonds, provides stability, and gives them a feeling of identity and belonging. Kids in kinship care have nearly half the risk of behavioral and social problems of children in foster care. Their placement is more likely to be permanent. Kinship care works.
Our Story
In 1997, child psychiatrist and pediatrician Dr. Eve Spratt founded HALOS. Dr. Spratt wanted to provide summer camp, extra-curricular activities, birthday parties and other parts of childhood she saw lacking in the lives of many children placed in foster care in Charleston County.
Over time, HALOS staff recognized that many more children are placed in the home of a relative rather than foster care, and that these kinship caregivers were not given the same resources as foster parents. In 2007, HALOS began to focus on helping kinship families in the tri-county area. As the first nonprofit of its kind in South Carolina, HALOS is paving the way for children to succeed with the support of their kinship families.
Research has proven that staying with a relative or close family friend dramatically increases a child’s ability to succeed. Your support makes that possible. By coming alongside these families, you empower kinship caregivers and help children thrive!