About Us

Founder and Leader

Hello! My name is Angela Tobin (previously Provenzano) and I am the founder and leader of Kinship Caregivers Connect- an online support group for kinship caregivers in Ohio. I became interested in Kinship caregivers after watching my grandparents raise my cousin, who now lives with my parents. I am an occupational therapist, earning my doctorate degree from The Ohio State University.

Learn more about my story

Vision

The vision for Kinship Caregivers Connect is to foster a community of solidarity and fellowship so no kinship family has to walk alone. Our main goals are to provide a platform of peer support, connections to community supports, and engaging resources to foster empowerment within caregivers.

History

KCC started at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, since June 2020. It is the first online statewide support groups in Ohio. Our goal is to facilitate engaging meetings that provides opportunities for learning and support. We have some meetings dedicated only to peer support and meetings where speakers come in and present on topics relevant to kinship care.

Partnership

OhioKAN is a flexible and responsive kinship and adoption navigator program designed to support children, youth and their families. Building on the premise that families are inherently capable of finding solutions to the circumstances and challenges they face, the OhioKAN program will take an inclusive, engaging, and genuine approach to strengthening families and their networks.

Creative Mission Statement

To the ones who have fallen between the cracks:
To the ones who are unseen and unheard as society steps over you
To the ones who care for others day in and day out without recognition.
To the ones who feel vastly unsupported and infinitely overburdened
I see you and I hear you from the sidewalk above.
I will not simply step over you.

I see your day to day labors,
of putting your head down in hard work and, putting your hands up in prayer
each new sunrise as a sign that you’ve simply made it.
I hear your cries for support and solidarity that are silenced by “bigger issues” in society.
I feel your hurt in being rejected by the very society that you are holding up by completely turning around a child’s life.

I don’t have the answers to get you out of the crack
I don’t have a voice loud enough to make everyone listen
But I do have my hands and my feet
Where I can climb down and link arms with you
To not look down at you
But to look up with you.
To know what’s it’s like to feel small and stepped over
To add one more voice to the call; one more verse to the song of hope

Change isn’t trying to fill the crack with cement and burying those in it
Change is calling on others to descend into it
To hear the heartfelt experiences of others
To bring a ladder and stabilize it on the bottom as others climb out
so they are once again seen, heard, and supported.

About Us

Founder and Leader

Vision

History

Partnership

Learn More!

In the Press...

Buckeyes Together

HRS Alumni Magazine

Buckeyes Together

OSU Insights

HRS Alumni Magazine

Buckeyes Together

HRS Alumni Magazine

HRS Alumni Magazine

HRS Alumni Magazine

Creative Mission Statement

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