Researchers at California State University, Northridge have received a $165,756 grant from the Eisner Foundation to answer that question and others, as they take a serious look at the programs offered by one of the county's largest providers of services to grandparents and other family caregivers, the nonprofit Grandparent as Parents (GAP). Once completed, the researchers will use their study as a catalyst for a conference on understanding the needs of this underserved and growing population.
“What’s amazing about this collaboration is that there is no ego involved,” said Julie Gould, a member of CSUN’s Department of Social Work who is working on the project. “GAP wants an honest assessment of what they are doing right and what they can improve on, and they are willing to share what we learn with other agencies so that grandparents and other relative caregivers can get access to the best programs and services possible.”
Gould and a team of faculty and student researchers from CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education, Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Institute of Community Health and Wellbeing, and the institute’s Neighborhood Partners in Action program will meet this spring with GAP staff and its clients to assess GAP’s services and programs.
Once the assessment is done, university representatives will host a retreat for GAP’s leadership and help them develop a strategic plan for going forward, said CSUN sociology professor David Boyns, director of the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing.
“The third component of the grant happens in the fall, when we host a large conference focused on intergenerational studies,” Boyns said. “At the conference, we are going to take the data from what we’ve learned from GAP and share strategies and experiences that everyone can learn from.”
In their application to the Eisner Foundation, university officials pointed out that in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys alone, 24.6 percent of all children are being cared for by grandparents. Nationwide, the number of grandparent-headed households has doubled since the 1970s from 3 percent to 6 percent — and approximately one in three grandparent-headed households have no parents present.
The Eisner Foundation was started in 1996 by Michael D. Eisner, then-chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and his wife Jane in order to focus their family’s philanthropic activities. The Eisner Foundation gives an estimated $7 million per year to nonprofit organizations based in Los Angeles County. In 2015, The Eisner Foundation became the only U.S. funder investing exclusively in intergenerational solutions.
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Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler