As I said here, there is an effort to restart the Grandfamilies Commission in SB143 – an omnibus that contains the language to restart the process.
It passed out of Committee and has been approved by the entire NH Senate:
Now it’s on to the NH House. Once again, I would ask our ‘Grok Legislative friends to look and smile upon it nicely!
On a more personal note, I have been running into more and more Grandparents that are taking care of their Grandchildren: two families at the Grandson’s nursery school, a couple that we just met up the street, and the door installer that just replaced my exterior door yesterday (that turned out to be factory defective when it was installed a year ago) is also raising his granddaughter. Some, like TMEW and I, are fine (just wish he’d sleep later in the morning….sigh) but a lot of others are not.
It is not clear that the same people will be re-appointed but many were seeking to have Government to do more: services, direct monies, and the like. It has been relayed to me that I will be re-appointed IF it clears the NH House and the Governor signs it – and I will be the one that helps the others to understand that getting Government out of the way can be just as efficient, if not more, than showering them with the former.
Most are old school – they want to be more self-reliant and not dependent on others. They believe that they can “do this” but do realize a bit of the right help, at the right time, in the right amount, will help them take care of the children in their care. Legal, financial, medical, transportation, food, technical – the issues are more than a few and wide variation of within each.
A worthwhile study by volunteers to figure out how big this breadbox is and report back to the Legislature.
