The Michigan State University School of Social Work received an endowment of $50,000 to support its Master of Social Work (MSW) students pursuing a career in child welfare services.
This gift was made possible by Lara Bouse, a highly decorated advocate in the child welfare space and a former kinship caregiver herself.
Despite not being an MSU alum, Bouse’s inspiration for this gift was strongly influenced by MSU’s Kinship Care Resource Center (KCRC)—a resource center housed in the MSU School of Social Work that “provides services to hundreds of families across Michigan, providing resources, support, education, and a sense of community,” said Anne Hughes, the director of MSU’s School of Social Work. “Kinship families are often the unsung heroes, providing a safety net for children in Michigan,” she continued.
Kinship care is the full-time care, nurturing, and protection of children by relatives, members of their tribes or clans, godparents, stepparents, or any adult who has a kinship bond with a child. Currently, there are 60,000 children in the state of Michigan who are living in kinship families, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).
“I see great value in what the Kinship Care Resource Center is, and has been able to do,” said Bouse. “It is the only one of its kind.”
Bouse’s ties to KCRC run deep. Over the past decade, “I have had the pleasure of working with some of Dr. Robert Little’s contemporaries at the time he founded the KCRC,” Bouse said. “Their stories and impressions of him and his original vision drove me to learn more about its history.”
This gave Bouse a clear vision of what the program could become, and how she could directly impact its future trajectory by empowering MSU’s student base.
“We saw MSU as a place where we could hopefully influence students to understand the importance of family dynamics, and that this idea of kinship care and community care is really the best way to build success for children and families,” said Bouse.
Bouse is the Executive Director of a nonprofit that serves foster, adoptive, and kinship families and advocates for change to improve outcomes for children and families in Michigan and across the nation. She also holds seats on the MDHHS Kinship Advisory Council and Child Welfare Improvement Task Force, and has been instrumental in the work of the Michigan Kinship Care Coalition. Her experience and dedication towards improving the child welfare landscape has been exceptional, yet she believes there’s still much room for improvement.
“We're not there yet,” said Bouse. “There are some things that still need to get better.”
Over the past decade, many changes in Michigan legislation have been made in the kinship care space. One of those changes being MDHHS’s expansion of the definition of ‘relative’ under law, “so that it includes fictive kin,” said Bouse. “People that are not related to a child by blood or marriage, but are a trusted adult for your family.”
Bouse believes this is a great step forward in making things better, with the ultimate goal being to fully support kinship caregivers and their children. This is best done when people enter spaces of direct service or policy and practice oversight that have studied and understand the real needs of those they are serving, she noted.
“The end goal looks like a grandmother, an aunt, an older brother, or somebody who finds themselves in a position raising a child they didn't plan on raising, knowing where to go to get help,” said Bouse. “It doesn't have to be food and dollars. It might be therapy. It might be some training and some work on family dynamics issues. It might be having a case manager that helps you make sure you've got all your stuff lined up.”
The MSU School of Social Work is thrilled to have this new endowment in recognition of the great work of the KCRC and kinship families across Michigan, said Hughes.
“This financial support could mean a student doesn’t have to get an extra job or can go full-time rather than part-time—enabling them to earn their degree in less time,” said Hughes. “Also, it raises awareness among students of kinship families and the work that is done to support children and families in Michigan.”