3 Financial Resources You Might Not Know About With Peyton Vining

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Did you know that if you've adopted your grandchildren that you're now eligible for Social Security benefits even if the parents are still living? Did you know that there are scholarships available for grandparents to travel with grandchildren?

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This and more on episode five. Three financial resources you might not know about welcome to grandparents raising grandchildren nurturing through advocacy in this podcast, we will delve deep into the challenges and triumphs of grandparents raising grandchildren as we navigate the complexities of legal, financial, and emotional support. I invite you to join us on a journey of exploring thoughts, feelings, and beliefs surrounding this growing segment of our society. Drawing from real stories and expert advice, we will explore the nuances of child rearing for children who have experienced trauma, and offer valuable resources to guide you through the intricate journey of kinship care.

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We'll discuss how we can change the course of history by rewriting our grandchildren's future, all within a supportive community that understands the unique joys and struggles. This podcast was made especially for you.

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Welcome to a community where your voice is heard, your experiences are valued, and your journey is honored.

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When I first became a grandparent raising two grandchildren, my time, other than raising the kids, was spent in desperately searching for legal and financial resources. After spending six months on the phone getting their Medicaid transferred, and finding a few other resources, I accepted the fact that this was all the help my husband and I were going to get. I've learned since then that you never stop asking, and if there's something you need, chances are it's out there somewhere. I hope this episode will encourage you to never give up and keep on asking.

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I'm here today with Peyton Vining, program manager of the Montana Kinship Navigator Program, which has been a wonderful source of information for me and offers all kinship caregivers support, education, and access to resources to assist them in in raising their children. I asked Peyton to share some insights into the unique challenges that grandparents face when raising their grandchildren, particularly in the context of trauma or difficult family situations. There can be breakthroughs or upsets or emotional distraught between family members, but you know, sometimes it's a parent and their child and they're taking the grandchild, and that can create a huge rift in that family dynamic. Once again, this relates back to the kid. It can be like, why isn't my mom or my dad a part of the family? And that can create that trauma. So there is a bunch of different outside factors that play into those new challenges that can caregivers take on and grandparents specifically as they parent the second time around and get those kids in the home again, we've experienced a lot. Of that ourselves, and thankfully, the kids have therapy that they're going to, to help them cope, because as much as I realize we as kinship caregivers are dealing with all of this, the grandchildren are dealing with a lot, too. I have to be reminded of that all the time. Yeah, no, absolutely. You're right. It's.

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It's a two two way street. You're experiencing what they're experiencing, and a lot of times, especially for younger kids, their emotions feed off of who they're being cared for emotions. So if you're constantly having one emotion, they're going to absorb that and they're going to display that emotion. So it really does play into effect, like what you're feeling and how you carry yourself and how your conversations are held within your household.

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So I completely agree with you. It's both the mental health of you and the kiddos. We all know that kinship care families don't receive the same kind of financial support as their non kin peers, such as foster parents.

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I asked Peyton to share with me some of the available resources, especially for grandparents raising grandchildren that are out there and that many of us might not be aware of, including mental health, legal, and especially financial resources.

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Resources vary from state to state. We discussed some particular resources in the state of Montana, but went on to discuss financial resources that are available to all of us. Yeah, absolutely. Montana is really good about having programs out there targeted towards specific things, especially for low income families. So specifically, like the first one you mentioned was the mental health or emotional support. So a couple of the ones I want to acknowledge is Montana State University does have a counseling department, and they are so wonderful about connecting with the community. So they actually do offer a counseling for anybody throughout the state of Montana. And it's on a sliding fee scale, and you can pay as little as up to a handful of dollars. Three, four, $5 dual counseling, whether you are the caregiver or they do counseling for the kiddos as well, if that's something they need. And they also do group counseling if that's something that you also think you need. That's one great resource that I always recommend to families, just because it is targeted too low income and you don't have to live in Bozeman, you can live anywhere across the state, you can have any income of any statue and your economic status, and they will serve you. So that's always been a great one. The other one is just thinking more on, like, the child side of things, just reaching out to your local school counselor. Most schools these days have a school counselor that you can go and talk to, and they might have other connections to resources, whether the problem is internal in the school or external in the family dynamic. That's why we have a big push for school counselors here in Montana, is to help all those kids. And, you know, Montana is very rural, so there's a lot of small communities out there that see a lot of struggles. So really pushing towards getting those school counselors and really using them as a resource to, you know, get those kids that help. And it's free of cost as well, because they're already in the school. And so it's just being proactive about going out there and asking for help at that point as well. And then the other thing I kind of want to touch on for emotional support, and this is something that you are doing right now in your community, is just local support groups, community support groups, and you know how to find those. There's different Facebook groups. If you're on social media, you can always find Facebook groups or even start your own Facebook group and just do it via online on the social media platform or reach out to your local MSU extension agent in your county and say, what's happening? Is there any support groups that you know of? And then the other is everywhere. There's a local agency area on aging, and they're always doing program. They've got a whole funding source where they put on different programming.

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Sometimes they run their support groups. So there's a lot of options out in the community and in the state for connecting with that emotional support and mental health capacity. Moving on to the second one, the legal aspects. Montana's got two wonderful free legal help programs. The first one, it's called Montana law help, and they're associated with what's called Montana Legal Services association. And that is low income legal help for those who need, whether it's information or paperwork, you just go to the website Montana law help. And they've got a plethora of topics that whether you're looking for something specific in your family or if you're looking at estate planning or, you know, whatever it is that you might be facing, Montana does have that free legal help association that has just been so wonderful. And they can connect you with an attorney that can give you more information and further you and put you on the right path to go down to get what you need and all the help. Obviously, they are not real attorneys that can help you in the court of law, but they will set you up on the right path to get you where you needed to go at low cost. And then the other one, Montana government does what's called the court help program.

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And the court help program has several different locations, but it's the same thing. They've got different attorneys that will give you information or give you direction for whatever legal advice you're seeking out. They're all great starting points for getting free legal help to point you in the right direction that you need. Or if it's just something super minor and it doesn't need to go to the court. That's why they're there as well. They're just cutting that middleman cost of that attorney that most families can't afford, especially, you know, those grandparents raising grandkids and those kinship families. So those are two of my top law help services here in Montana. And then finally, for the education resources, different topics. Again, one for, like, childcare. A lot of, you know, childcare is getting kind of tougher now in Montana. There's long waiting lists. The costs are skyrocketing. So a great, great program that I've worked with in the past, best beginnings, they help low income families pay for the child care. If the child care provider, you know, obviously works with best beginnings, but it's a great service. I've used it with a lot of families. You know, those high prices of childcare can be in the thousands of dollars. In best beginnings is such a great Montana resource for those families to cut those costs and help get those kids in childcare. And then the other one geared towards kids is Montana's got a free and reduced school lunch program. Almost all Montana schools participate in that. So again, if you're already in that low income status or you're missing that nutritional piece, reach out to of your school and ask, do you guys do the free and reduced school lunch program?

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And, you know, that's breakfast, if your school does breakfast and lunch.

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So lunch bills can be very costly as well. So that can help reduce the cost of those for kids in school.

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This was the first time I was made aware of the Montana 211 program. I highly suggest you look into seeing if there's a program such as this available in your area as well. The Montana 211 program is just a fabulous, fabulous resource. They, whether you call them their 24 hours, seven day a week hotline, and they will get you connected to anything you are seeking out in Montana.

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Whether you call and say, hey, I need help getting connected to food, they'll get you connected to food in your county. If you say, hey, I need help getting connected to clothes. They'll help you get connected to clothes or anything that you can think of that comes up in a family dynamic. 211 has a whole, whole variety of programs in the whole state of Montana.

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And that's two, one, one, you just dial 211. Yep, just dial 211. If you don't want to call them, you can just go to their website, 211 Montana, and they've got an option, and it's the same thing. Type in whatever you're looking for, and if you're in a specific county, you can click their county, and a whole list of resources will come up just right there in front of you with their address and their phone number and what they provide. So that's just a great whole statewide resource list. Pretty much. If you're looking for something, 211, 200, eleven's got it. So I just, I always use them when I'm talking to families as well. Kinship navigator programs all over the country are an invaluable resource for us grandparents raising grandchildren. And I know when I got over feeling like a afloat in uncharted territories with no hope in sight, finding the Montana kinship Navigator program helped me get over the feeling of being so helpless. And I began looking for what I wanted and believed I deserved. And I found a surprising number of options. For instance, did you know that if you're a legal guardian, that you can receive Social Security benefits for your grandchildren if their parents are disabled? If you have legally adopted your grandchildren, you can now receive Social Security benefits even if the parents are not disabled and not deceased? A new law passed in 2023. My husband and I had worked hard all of our lives to be able to retire and travel. Just before we'd gotten guardianship of our grandchildren, we'd started to do just that. We thought we'd never be able to enjoy that dream again after we got the kids. Until one day, I reached out to Rhodes Scholar, who I discovered awards, over 300 scholarships to people at least 50 years of age who need financial assistance traveling with grandchildren ages five to 18. They have animal and wildlife excursions, trips to Europe, United States, and to South America. So I began working with them to provide scholarships through their partners for the kids as well. So we hope to offer such excursions to grandparents raising grandchildren as soon as 2025. Again, if you don't ask, you don't know what possibilities there are out there.

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The financial hit is a big one for grandparents raising grandchildren because none of us planned on doing this at this point point in our lives. I asked Peyton what role she saw improved financial resources played in alleviating the stress factor faced by grandparents raising grandchildren, and what the current and future advancement of national laws to support progress in this area are. The financial aspect is definitely one of the biggest burdens that families face when they come into their new roles as parenting a second time around or getting new kids in the household. And, you know, whether they're two years old or 18 years old, that's one more mouth you have to feed. And so a lot of the financial burden now is with nutrition and groceries. It's, you know, the price of everything has gone up, and so you're feeding extra mouths, but you were already on a set budget that fed you. And if you had a significant other, you know, you went from two to five pretty quick. So a lot of our programs, especially in Montana, thankfully, have geared it towards providing financial assistance towards nutrition and groceries. And when you become retired, you're cutting your income in almost half.

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So that flow of money is no longer is what it used to be when you were working, but you have this new task of buying diapers, buying wet wipes, buying snow boots every year because they grow out of it, paying for sports fees, paying for, you know, athletic clothes if they do any sort of athletics.

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So, you know, it starts to add up. And so all of those things contribute to that stress factors that a lot of these families feel and adds up quickly. And then on top of that, you have things like energy bills and rent and car bills, gas. So in a household with several kids in it, per se, if you have more than one, it does become a very high stress factor. So having multiple sources of financial assistance, whether it's from the church donations or federally governmented programs, can definitely knock one of those categories off.

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There's obviously not an overnight fix, and there's not just a plethora of money out there to be given. But, you know, if you just sign up for one resource that knocks off groceries for a month, that's something you don't have to worry about. Or there's a lot of different low income energy assistant programs out there that can help you pay for your energy costs if you can't pay that. So, you know, just knocking one thing off at a time can really alleviate those stress buildup that come with the financial burdens that families are facing. Asking what's out there and stating what your need is and saying, what can I get help with? Or what financial assistance is available for me specifically for childcare or school lunch or groceries or energy is just a great start.

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Knocking one thing off at a time is just a great way to just slow down that stress and kind of just refocus on what is important in your house. And, you know, maybe it is making a list of, here's the highest bills that are coming out right now and being like, okay, groceries are really high right now. Who can we get help from to help pay for groceries?

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And then maybe it's okay. We've got the cost of basketball coming up. Let's see if somebody would donate money or if there's a program out there that can help reduce the cost of that. You know, just listing out what your bills are and just tackling it one at a time, because, you know, it is very overwhelming, especially initially when you get those kids back in the house.

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It's like a thousand things are going on. I don't know what I'm paying for.

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I don't know what the cost of everything is. So it is very overwhelming at first. But I think just sitting down after the dust settles and just figuring out where, where you need money from and then going out in the community and saying, who can help? There are financial planning agencies in every area on a state and community level, even estate planning, I found out ask or google it to get the financial planning you need for your family.

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Don't be a victim of your circumstances.

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The nation is redefining laws surrounding kinship caregiving.

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I encourage you to write your legislators.

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Your voice matters. Be an advocate for change. I hope you liked the show, and if you did, please share it with a friend that needs to hear.

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If you love the show and you're listening on a broadcasting platform like Apple or Spotify, scroll down in your app and please leave a review. Next week on our show, a step by step guide to working with your traumatized child. I'll be speaking about tools and techniques that you can use to help with coping with traumatized children and behavioral disorders. Thank you for tuning in to grandparents, raising grandchildren, nurturing through adversity, please remember you're not alone, and together we can find strength and hope in the face of adversity.

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Peace be with you, and I pray that you find some time this week to listen to your inner wisdom amongst the noise and the pandemonium of this world.