[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 7, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CONGRATULATIONS TO KARE FAMILY CENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 7, 2007

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to extend my 
congratulations to a great resource in southern Arizona.
  For 5 years, the Kinship and Adoption Resource and Education Family 
Center, KARE, has been providing support and resources for grandparents 
and other relatives raising children whose biological parents are 
unable to do so. Considering that Arizona is one of the fastest growing 
States in the country where children are having to be raised outside of 
their own birth-families, the center's work has become invaluable to 
the community members of my district. Through KARE, many families are 
able to keep more children out of foster homes. It is my pleasure to 
thank them on this landmark date.
  Over the existence of the KARE Family Center, several thousand 
grandparents, relatives and adoptive parents have received many 
crucially important services. The center provides such benefits as case 
management services and mental/behavioral health services, completely 
free of charge. Without such services, many of the children in question 
would not be found under the care of their own family, which simply can 
not be equaled by state care. Grandparents, relatives, and adoptive 
parents, who are often suffering from declining health and financial 
burdens, are able to overcome these extraordinary circumstances through 
the help of the KARE center.
  As the need for specialization in the area of adoption and kinship 
support services grows across the country, the KARE center has helped 
to develop and promote access to similar programs. In its 5 years, KARE 
has provided assistance to several thousand families, and with more 
programs like it in development, far fewer children are left to be 
raised in unfamiliar surroundings, or overburdened foster families. 
Their work has shown that kinship and non-nuclear biological families 
can provide permanent stable homes, an alternative to foster care and 
delinquency systems, while 100 percent of children in the program 
remain in school.
  I wish continued success of the KARE Family Center. It is my honor to 
celebrate with them a history of community involvement and service.

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