Conference set for ‘ohana caregivers raising keiki

Kupuna raising keiki and other ‘ohana caregivers of children are invited to a free conference to learn about community resources that can help them. The conference, titled “Na Keiki Aloha O Na ‘Ohana,” will be held at Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sponsors include the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center, AARP Hawaii, Child and Family Services, Agency on Elderly Affairs, and ALU LIKE INC.

“Hawaii has over 14,000 grandparents serving as primary caregivers for more than 38,000 grandchildren,” said Kaui Castillo, director of Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center, in a press release. “This figure doesn’t even include all the other ‘ohana caregivers that those of us living on Kauai recognize as our friends and neighbors. We wanted to figure out a way to help them.”

This event, free to all ‘ohana caregivers raising keiki, will kick off with a panel of grandparents raising grandchildren, who will talk about their challenges and how they deal with them.

The conference will feature sessions on Coping with Substance Abuse, Using Humor to Survive and Thrive, and Legal Issues for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. A resource fair of local service providers will be held on site throughout the conference to allow attendees to ask questions and connect with services that can help them.

“AARP research shows that many kupuna caregivers do not know about services or programs that are available to them,” said Jackie Boland, associate state director of AARP Hawaii, in the release. “And, we know that there are not a lot of services available to them on Kaua‘i. This conference is a first step in linking ‘ohana caregivers with services and support that can help them in their situation — as well as help us identify which services are missing on Kaua‘i.”

For more information, or to register for this event, contact the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center at 245-1873.