Erie County Department of Social Services Kinship Unit

My name is Frank A. Saladyga. I am Unit Supervisor of the Children’s Services Kinship Unit, part of the Erie County Department of Social Services. You can reach the Kinship Unit by calling: (716) 858-2606.

The mission of the Kinship Unit is to provide preventive services to help ensure a safe, healthy, permanent home for children within the family system as an alternative to foster care.

The Kinship Unit works in conjunction with parents, relatives and children to maintain positive family attachments. The focus is to empower the caregivers with the skills and means to provide children with a long-term nurturing home.

The majority of our intake comes from Child Protection Services who become involved with a parent in neglect and abuse allegation situations. If out-of-home placement of a child is necessary, Child Protection attempts to find a relative (or another family resource) to take temporary custody of the child instead of a foster care placement. This relative or other resource files for custody in Family Court. The Family Court Judge may give supervision of the custodial arrangement, as well as the charge to help the parent in regaining custody of their child, to the Erie County Department of Social Services. If a parent is unable to regain custody, the custodian may file for "permanent" custody of the child. If this occurs, then custody remains with the relative or relative resource. It cannot be changed unless there is a significant change in circumstances and the parent petitions for the child's return and the Family Court Judge gives custody back to the parent. It is with these cases that our unit is primarily involved.

We help the child's caretaker secure financial aid for the child, as well as Medicaid to meet the child’s medical needs, and day care if needed. Our caseworkers make home visits to assess other needs, such as counseling for the children and parents. Our usual involvement with a family is twelve months.

Updated, July 2005