Relative Caregiver Program helps keep kids out of Tennessee’s foster system
Lenora Jones (middle) with her adopted granddaughters Jamyia Edwards, 15, (left) and Jaliah Edwards, 13 (right) on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Shelby County Relative Caregiver Program has helped more than 9,000 children stay with family members — keeping them out of Tennessee’s foster care system, which has the highest rate of foster care instability in the country.
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UTHSC Foster Care caregiverAisling Mäki
Aisling Mäki covers health care, banking and finance, technology and professions. After launching her career in news two decades ago, she worked in public relations for almost a decade before returning to journalism in 2022.
As a health care reporter, she’s collaborated with The Carter Center, earned awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists and won a 2024 Tennessee Press Association first-place prize for her series on discrepancies in Shelby County life expectancy by ZIP code.
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