Newsletters

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This month, we’re highlighting both urgent needs and new opportunities. From helping families navigate unexpected winter hardships to launching our Summer Care & Enrichment Campaign, our focus is on ensuring kids in kinship care not only stay safe but have opportunities to grow, connect, and thrive.

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In this month’s newsletter, we share a story about helping one student take part in a once-in-a-lifetime school trip, along with updates on summer opportunities, our college scholarship, and ways our community is coming together to support kinship families through the final stretch of winter.

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In this issue, you’ll meet Tiffany, whose love and determination kept her sisters together through adoption; learn about important policy news that could expand childcare access for retired grandparents; and see how your generosity is helping keep families safe and warm through our Winter Stability Campaign. We’re also sharing updates on scholarships, support groups, and ways to get involved as we continue showing up for kinship caregivers across New Hampshire and Southern Maine.

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Happy New Year, friends and supporters! As we step into 2026, we’re grateful for the incredible community that continues to rally around kinship caregivers, those everyday heroes who open their hearts and homes to children when families face unimaginable challenges. Over the past year, your generosity and engagement helped us provide 193 families across New Hampshire and Southern Maine with financial assistance.

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As we head into the holiday season, our hearts are full. This year has been a powerful reminder of what’s possible when a community comes together to support kinship families, and December feels like the perfect moment to pause, reflect, and say thank you.

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As we enter the season of gratitude, we’re reminded that every act of generosity, big or small, has the power to change lives. This month, we’re celebrating the ripple effect of giving, from the grandmother whose family found stability through our support, to the incredible community events that keep kinship families strong all year long.

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Read updates from Step Up Parents from Fall 2024, including the results of our inaugural Step Out & Step Up fundraiser, a hero spotlight, a new kinship support group, and a partnership with Exeter Subaru.

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September is National Kinship Care Month, a time to celebrate the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends who step up for children in need. At Step Up Parents, it’s the perfect time to honor these caregivers and to rally around them as a community.

We’re just weeks away from our biggest event of the year, Step Out and Step Up: An Evening to Benefit Kinship Care! On September 20th, we’ll gather in Portsmouth to celebrate kinship families and raise critical support for their journeys. There’s still time to get tickets!

This newsletter is filled with stories of resilience and generosity that highlight the spirit of National Kinship Care Month, from an inspiring kinship care journey, to the perseverance of our board member John Sheedy, to the incredible support of our partners.

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Summer is flying by, but there’s no shortage of inspiration at Step Up Parents. This month, we’re honored to share the story of a kinship family who stepped in without hesitation to keep five children together and safe. You’ll also find exciting news about our biggest event of the year, Step Out and Step Up, coming this September, and a generous new partnership with Exeter Subaru that’s helping kinship caregivers get their kids ready for back-to-school. In addition, we’re recapping a joyful afternoon on the water during our kinship family sail.

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Hello, July! Summer is officially in full swing. Because of the generosity of supporters like you, we were able to help several children in kinship care attend camp this summer, where they will play, experience nature, bond with peers, and simply be kids. What an incredible difference a week at camp can make!

Speaking of camp—our #NHGives campaign to raise funds for summer activities for kinship families was a success! We are so grateful to everyone who donated, getting us to a grand total of $2,520. That amount of money will translate to countless special summer memories for kids and families. That's something we can all celebrate this 4th of July weekend!

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With green leaves sprouting and flowers in bloom, we reflect on a busy and inspiring month at Step Up Parents. In April, thanks to generous community support, we received several grants and donations that will allow us to help even more kinship families. We celebrated being selected by 100 Women Who Care Seacoast for their quarterly award. We also launched plans for our biggest event yet—our Step Out and Step Up fundraiser this September. Most importantly, we continue to stand alongside incredible caregivers like Chris and Nicole, whose story you can read below. Their love and resilience remind us why our mission matters every single day.

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Happy spring and welcome to Step Up Parents’ first monthly newsletter! We are excited to begin sharing these monthly updates, keeping you informed about our latest news and events, and sharing touching stories from the kinship families we support. 

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Read updates from Step Up Parents from Fall 2024, including Spinning Generosity, community events with Seacoast Newcomers Club, a hero spotlight, and more.

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With summer in full swing, many families are heading outdoors to enjoy all the beautiful things New England has to offer. At Step Up Parents, we have been busy rolling out our expansion into Cumberland County, Maine, making connections in the community, and meeting the needs of amazing kinship families.

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We are thrilled to announce Step Up Parents is expanding our service area to include kinship families from Cumberland County, Maine. When we began providing assistance in York County, Maine last spring, we were hopeful that we could continue to grow our network throughout the state, and this expansion to Cumberland County is our next step towards meeting the needs of kinship families throughout Maine.

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The leaves have changed and begun to fall, reminding us that winter is on the horizon. For many families, winter presents more challenges, including providing heat, reliable transportation, and warm clothing. At this time of year, we typically see a rise in need and are happy to help our kinship families make ends meet as they provide the children in their care with a warm and safe home.

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We are thrilled to announce Step Up Parents is expanding our service area to include kinship families from Cumberland County, Maine. When we began providing assistance in York County, Maine last spring, we were hopeful that we could continue to grow our network throughout the state, and this expansion to Cumberland County is our next step towards meeting the needs of kinship families throughout Maine.

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Spring has sprung! This time of year is perfect for new beginnings, so it's fitting that Step Up Parents is beginning its new venture in Southern Maine. We are excited to answer the call of Maine kinship families, starting with York County.

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With colder weather around the corner and the rising cost of home heating fuel and other utilities, we are very aware that staying warm will be much more difficult this year. Step Up Parents is working hard to be a resource for kinship caregivers facing not only the emotional and physical responsibility of raising the kinship children in their care, but the financial challenges as well. We are ready to help!

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We hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful summer! We appreciate that it can be difficult for working and older caregivers when the kids are home from school. Please reach out if we can help with summer camp or other summer activities.

Step Up Parents continues to grow as an organization, guided by our board of directors. Without them, we would not be where we are today. We would like to recognize the service and leadership of Paul Taylor and Katie Fontana as they leave our board and to welcome Pam Brazeau, Deb Anthony, Linda Sanborn and Candie Wright as the newest members of our board. Collectively, they bring a wealth of experience and skills to our leadership team. Please let us know if you would also like to get involved.

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Happy Spring! Here’s some news worth celebrating! In 2019, Step Up Parents began providing financial assistance to kinship caregivers raising the children of parents with substance use disorder in New Hampshire. We are thrilled to announce that we have now surpassed $100,000 in assistance, thanks to the help of our generous donors!

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‘Tis the season to give thanks for our family and friends and all of life’s blessings. Yet for many families touched by substance misuse, the holiday season can be particularly difficult.

Step Up Parents wants to express our deepest gratitude to all who have supported a loved one who struggles with substance use disorder. Their journey is emotionally, physically, and financially draining and often lasts for years. In many cases, children are involved, and they are unable to stay with their biological parents. For these vulnerable kids, staying with a relative helps to mitigate their trauma.

To all the hero kinship caregivers who stepped up for the children of parents with addiction, we say THANK YOU. You define what it is to be a hero on a daily basis by facing adversity with strength, courage, and selflessness. We honor you, and our donors support your efforts.

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September is National Kinship Care Month. It is a time to recognize and honor relative caregivers, each one of whom is an everyday hero to a child who has faced the uncertainty of not knowing who will step up to take care of them when their parents can’t. In the United States, there are well over 2.7 million grandparents and other relative caregivers, including over 12,000 grandparents raising grandchildren in New Hampshire. Studies show that keeping a child with a relative when they are removed from their biological parents helps to mitigate past trauma and reduces future trauma. At Step Up Parents, we celebrate kinship caregivers and their families every day. We hope you will join us in raising awareness and supporting their efforts with our Annual Appeal this month…

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Happy Spring! As vaccines are administered, we look forward with hope to a more normal year ahead, including warm hugs we all have missed. We will be forever changed by the events of last year and the devastating effects of Covid-19. At Step Up Parents, we are reminded daily of the importance of family in hard times and of the heroes among us…

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Welcome to the new year and our recently-named quarterly newsletter, Step by Step! Last year was like no other in ways we couldn’t have imagined. For kinship families, their daily challenges were compounded by the unrelenting grip of the pandemic. Caregivers dealt with not only economic and health challenges but were also expected to be teachers, coaches, and counselors…so much to ask of anyone. We are hopeful that 2021 will mean the easing of some of the stresses and burdens that so many families are facing…