Dr. Ali Caliendo is the founder and executive director of Foster Kinship, a 501c3 proudly supporting individuals raising their relative’s children (kinship caregivers) in Nevada.

Ali established Foster Kinship as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2011. As a foster/adoptive parent, she had the desire to help the 30,000 children living with relative caregivers in Nevada, also known as kinship care. She founded Foster Kinship with a mission to “strengthen the kinship caregivers’ capacity to provide safe, stable, and nurturing homes for children.”

 

Locally and nationally recognized, Foster Kinship is now the statewide Kinship Navigator Program and the only non-profit organization in Nevada exclusively serving kinship children and families. Since its inception 10 years ago, Foster Kinship has proudly served over 16,000 children and 8,000 kinship families across Nevada.

Responding to the various changes and challenges facing kinship families, Foster Kinship has grown significantly in size, scope, and breadth, including staff with over 60 years of combined experience working with kinship families and children.

Foster Kinship offers three free programs for any kinship family in the state: Enhanced Kinship Navigator Program, Child Welfare Training, and The Kinship Training Institute. Services include case management, child abuse prevention education, CPR/First Aid/AED and car seat training, emergency services, legal and financial support, community referrals, support groups, family events, notary, child and youth programs, respite care, and advocacy.

Foster Kinship is also the first kinship support program to develop and use the Kinship Resource Locator Tool– a self service directory of resources specific to kinship families based on their location, age, age of the children, and kinship family type. The tool was developed and created by Dedicated Managers in parternship with Foster Kinship in 2013.

Working with the state of Nevada, Foster Kinship has been undergoing outside evaluation by Dr. Mark Preston of Preston Consulting, LLC since 2018. Results of the first two evaluations show the kinship navigator program significantly increases caregivers access to services and significantly decreasing the likelihood of placement distruption.

Learn more about this important work.