Changing Needs in Appalachia Drive CAP’s Programming BY KIM KOBERSMITH AND TINA V. BRYSON
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n many ways, Kathy Parsons of Rockcastle County, Kentucky is a typical parent to 3-year-old Dillon and 10-year-old Maddie. She helps them with homework, makes sure they are safe and warm with a roof over their heads, and prepares nutritious meals for them to eat. Kathy is also one of the rising number of grandparents across the United States that are parenting their grandchildren. This national trend is having a profound impact in Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) service area. Kentucky has the fifth highest state-wide percentage of grandparents raising grandchildren. “All our human service programs have seen a notable increase in the number of non-traditional families that we serve,” said Mike Loiacono, the director of human services in Rockcastle, Jackson, and McCreary Counties. During his time as manager at CAP’s Child and Family Development Center in McCreary County, Loiacono said that up to 70 percent of the preschoolers each year lived in non-traditional families, most frequently with grandparents. While there are many reasons why children are not living with their parents, like military deployment and incarceration, for some, it is a ripple effect of the opioid epidemic. That is the case for Parsons’s grandchildren. Parsons brought them home after birth and is the only mom they have known. “It’s a lot for a person my age. You have to keep pushing yourself and doing what you have to do,” said Parsons, 8
The Mountain Spirit Spring/Summer 2020
Kentucky has the fifth highest state-wide percentage of grandparents raising grandchildren. who will soon have to address the needs of a pre-teen going through puberty and a preschooler, both whom have special needs. She and her husband had their own farm and raised show horses, but after his death, it became more challenging for her to maintain her farm and keep up repairs on her home. Having to start over while raising two young children made her tenuous situation untenable. “It’s not just financially stressful, but emotionally stressful too. But these children didn’t ask to be in this situation.” Although this rising population of grandparents is putting forth a heroic effort of love, they also continue to have unique struggles. CAP staff on the ground are meeting the needs of the surging population of non-traditional families in the region in several different areas. Parsons’s introduction to CAP was through the Family Advocacy Emergency Assistance Program, which helps families in a monetary crisis. The roof of her 1970s home
