Resources Available for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Bahati Ansari’s grandson was in trouble. His mother was concerned about the road he was heading down and thought having his grandmother take over his care might help.

“I was thinking what am I going to do raising another 15 year old,” Ansari said.

She shared her story at a recent resource forum in August for grandparents raising grandchildren and other family caregivers sponsored by AARP New Mexico. The event was the second of three scheduled forums this year with the third event planned for early November.

Despite still working and Ansari’s husband being on oxygen they decided to take the young man in and see if they could help.

“His style has changed. He does well now in school. He’s a good boy. He does well in school. I want to see him make it and whatever I can do to steer him toward that I will,” Ansari said.

But Ansari doesn’t attribute her grandson’s success to herself alone. She had help. A year ago, she went to a workshop sponsored by Outcomes Inc., an organization in Albuquerque that provides a number of support services for individuals including grandparents raising grandchildren.

“People don’t know there’s resources out there and support. We’ve got to get a movement going to pull different groups together so people can get the help they need,” Ansari said.

Pulling those resources together is exactly what AARP is trying to do through the free resource fares.

“We’ve brought a number of organizations together that cover all areas of raising a child including financial assistance, legal issues, health care and family matters,” said Stan Cooper, AARP New Mexico State Director.

“We keep the presentations to a minimum so that people have the chance to visit one on one with experts in these particular areas and get the answers they need,” he said.

“Mrs. Ansari is right – people don’t realize that there is help out there and to the extent that assistance is available. We hope by having these resource forums people will learn that they don’t have to raise a child completely on their own,” Cooper said.

During the August session, Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino gave an update on some laws passed during the last session that will help grandparents raising grandchildren some financial assistance.

In the past, if a grandparent or other person agreed to raise a child that was not their own, their financial resources were used to calculate assistance eligibility.

“Now in New Mexico, if you are a legal guardian of a child and you can’t meet that child’s needs you can still receive financial assistance just for that child. It won’t include your resources,” Ortiz y Pino said.

“What this tells me is we are slowly evolving some of our policies to recognize the important work that grandparents do,” he said.

For more information on grandparents raising grandchildren visit www.aarp.org or for more information on New Mexico resources visit our community journals.