By Gloria Sanchez, GRANDcares Site Coordinator, Adams County
Recently established in the Denver North Metro Area, Adams County is the home of the GRANDcares Project’s second Colorado site. We are really excited about bringing the Powerful Tools for Caregivers - Grandfamilies class and other resources to our grandparent community. Our goal is to provide the class and training to as many grandfamilies as possible, and we were able to start our first Powerful Tools for Caregivers - Grandfamilies class on April 5th, 2017!
In order to plan this first class, we worked closely with various community agencies and organizations involved in kinship care throughout the community. The support that we found from other kinship organizations was amazing! They helped with everything from providing space, to referrals, to allowing us to visit their kinship groups, and in the end, we were able to recruit grandparents from different parts of the county and the surrounding cities!
Our first cohort met every Wednesday morning for 6 weeks, and it was a remarkably engaging and delightful group. Together we talked about the many challenges that grandparents face when they become the primary caretakers of their grandchildren.. For example, often times, grandparents find themselves on an emotional rollercoaster, unable to identify how they really feel, or they find that making important decisions and having difficult conversations can be very stressful. Taking on new and different roles and responsibilities can also quickly become burdensome, and overwhelming. This can all easily lead to losing sight of oneself and not communicating one’s feelings and needs, hence burning out.
During our 6 weeks together, we also learned various stress-management tools, emphasizing and practicing the importance of taking care of us. We were optimistic when we expressed and learned from our emotions, set goals and put our Action Plans into effect, and utilized our effective communication strategies. My co-facilitator, Ana Bustillos and myself were very blessed with the commitment, dedication, willingness, interaction, and responsiveness of the participants of the first Adams County Cohort. We are very satisfied with the outcome of this first cohort and eager to start registration for the Fall groups and those that will follow.
All in all, we are off to a great start!
