When family steps in, support should step up.
Building GRAND-Families Inc. is a Prince Edward Island nonprofit created with and for grandparents, relatives and other kinship caregivers raising children when parents cannot provide day-to-day care. We connect families, develop practical resources and programming, and bring lived experience into research, education and system change.
Grandfamilies are bigger than the word grandparent.
Children may be raised by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, cousins, family friends or other trusted people when parents cannot provide day-to-day care.
Our name reflects where the organization began, but our work recognizes the wider kinship and alternative-caregiver community. If family has stepped in to raise a child, this site is designed to help make the next steps easier to understand.
Support families today while helping systems work better tomorrow.
Peer support
Reduce isolation by connecting caregivers with people who understand what it means to become a parent again.
Find peer supportKinship support navigation
Guided Help, First Steps, practical resources, human navigation assistance and warm referrals help families move from a real-life problem to a useful next step.
See how navigation worksFamily programming
Develop camps, caregiver learning and trauma-informed family experiences around needs identified by families.
Explore programsResearch and advocacy
Bring lived experience into research, public education, program design and policy conversations.
See research and impactBuilt from lived experience. Backed by research. Focused on practical change.
Building GRAND-Families grew from caregivers organizing around the realities of raising children within extended family. That lived experience now informs programs, research, professional education and advocacy across Prince Edward Island.
Start with the situation in front of you.
You do not need to know which department, program or service owns the problem. Choose the closest situation and follow a short route through the information.
I just took in a child
Safety, paperwork, school, health, authority and first-week basics.
Child Protection or the Grandparent and Alternative Care Provider (GACP) Program is involved
Understand the arrangement, prepare for meetings and find the next program or legal question.
The household costs changed fast
Benefits, CRA, housing, child care, taxes and practical supports.
I am unsure what I can decide
Consent, guardianship, Family Court, documents, travel and longer-term authority.
School or health care is the problem
Caregiver handoff, records, authority, mental health and additional needs.
Parent contact or family safety is difficult
Visits, boundaries, substance use, family violence, recovery and the child’s emotions.
Connection matters for children and caregivers.
Building GRAND-Families has developed peer support, family camps, workshops, trauma-informed programming and equine-assisted learning through community partnerships.
Programs change with funding and family needs, so the Programs page explains both the work we have done and how to ask about what is currently available.
Grandfamily experience has helped shape published PEI research.
A UPEI-led qualitative study developed with community partners included interviews with 12 grandparents raising grandchildren in rural Prince Edward Island and examined how families navigate systems that do not always recognize their family form.
Peer-reviewed research
Stepping Up and Stepping In was published in the Journal of Family Nursing in 2022, with Building GRAND-Families founder Don Avery as a co-author and community research partner.
Read the articleFamily stories in national research
Don Avery and Gaby Novoa also contributed a chapter on PEI grandfamilies to Families, Mobility, and Work, connecting lived experience with broader family research.
Read the Vanier Institute summaryCurrent support-group listings in Cornwall and Summerside.
211 PEI currently lists Building GRAND-Families grandparents parenting support groups in both communities. Meeting schedules can change, so contact us before travelling.
Sometimes you need a worksheet, not another explanation.
Download free checklists for the first seven days, GACP meetings, school, health, expenses, legal questions, family contact, turning 18 and emergency planning.
Helping the systems around families work better.
Building GRAND-Families also develops practical education for schools, health professionals, employers and community organizations so kinship families are recognized and supported wherever they turn.
Our professional resources translate caregiver experience into practical changes around forms, privacy, legal authority, trauma, affordability, communication and service navigation.
Help strengthen the network around families.
Volunteer, partner, collaborate, share lived experience or support the work in a way that respects the privacy and dignity of children and caregivers.
Volunteer
Help with events, outreach, administration or project-based work when current volunteer roles are open.
Partner
Work with us on community, education, research or practical family needs.
Share expertise or experience
Help improve resources and services without needing to make a private family story public.
Strong kinship families need a strong community around them.
Donations help support outreach, family programming, educational resources, peer connection and advocacy.