For Kith and Kin –
December 26, 2019 – Hannah, now 17, is an artistic young woman who enjoys making French toast with her uncle and watching movies with the entire family of seven on most weeknights. She has not talked to her mother in more than five years.
“My feeling of love toward her has faded away,” Hannah said. “I hope she’s doing O.K., but I don’t care anymore. She never cared for us.” More than a quarter of the nearly 27,000 children who were removed from their homes last year in Ohio were placed in the care of relatives or other adults deemed “kinship” — coaches, teachers or family friends. From 2010 to 2018, the number of Ohio children placed in kinship homes increased by nearly 140 percent, with a nearly 50 percent surge from 2016 to 2018 alone.
