Philadelphian Paula Fantroyal is raising her 3-year-old grandson, Wyleek. Eleftherios Kostans

It's like starting from square one. That's how Paula Fantroyal describes becoming unexpectedly responsible for her grandson Wyleek.

The child was abandoned in Philadelphia, where Fantroyal lives, about a year ago. While she loves Wyleek deeply, the past year has been a financial strain on Fantroyal, and she's been forced to postpone major surgery for fear of what would happen to her 3-year-old grandson while she is hospitalized.

Fortunately, some grandparents raising their grandchildren are finding help through programs that address their specific needs.

Philadelphia's Grand Central and the Boston-based GrandFamilies House, for instance, were created to help the growing number of older Americans raising kids deal with issues such as transportation, health, education, housing and finances.

GRANDPARENTS ON THE RISE

Since 1990 there's been nearly a 30 percent increase—more than 1 million additional kids—in the number of children being raised by grandparents. Census 2000 data show more than 4.5 million children living in 2.4 million grandparent-headed households.

Many of these grandparents are divorced or widowed. They live on fixed incomes that are stretched thin by caring for children who often have serious health problems, says Marianne Takas, a child welfare law specialist, in a report prepared for AARP.

Programs like Grand Central ease some of the burden. "It's been a blessing," Fantroyal says. Grand Central helped her obtain various social services for Wyleek, a playful youngster too young to appreciate his grandmother's predicament. Fantroyal, who's close to 50, is on disability and receives little state or federal assistance for Wyleek's care.

Insufficient government aid is a common problem for grandparent caregivers, says Takas. Most assistance programs are designed to help single moms and foster parents raising children, not grandparents.

Grand Central, however, serves a host of struggling kinship caregivers like Fantroyal, many of whom are grandparents or great-grandparents.

LINKING PEOPLE TO SERVICES

Housed in an old office building in downtown Philadelphia, the program connects people to appropriate support services. It served nearly 1,500 kinship caregivers and kids from June 2000 through June 2001.

"We show them where to begin…we help them navigate the system," says Sandra Campbell-Jackson, executive director of Grand Central.

Fantroyal claims that if Grand Central "hadn't stepped in, I never would have been able to cut through all the red tape" required by social services to get custody of Wyleek. And while the group doesn't have the budget to offer direct legal or monetary assistance, it's the little things Grand Central's staff does that make a difference, she says.

Fantroyal has used the program's facilities to send faxes and call long distance to arrange for social and health services. She says she sometimes stops by simply to get out of the heat or cold, or just to say hello to the half-dozen office staffers.

Grand Central is also a place where frustrated grandparents can vent their feelings. As Carmen Borrero, 53, who's raising her grandson, discovered, counseling and support services can be just as critical as financial assistance. Grand Central not only found hospital care for Gilbert, 7, who's HIV-positive, it helped him and his grandmother move beyond feelings of sadness and resentment.

"[They] helped me face the situation I was in," Borrero tells the AARP Bulletin. "They gave me counseling, they were there to talk to, they helped me move on."

Many grandparents seeking help through programs like Grand Central assume care for a child because the parents are struggling with problems like substance abuse, poverty, AIDS or mental illness.

But older caregivers themselves often have a lot to cope with when raising youngsters, says Campbell-Jackson.

Some grandparents have problems keeping up with an energetic child. Some are not up on the latest educational or social trends among kids. While they can generally manage children ages 5 to 11, Campbell-Jackson says, they have more difficulty with preteens and teenagers seeking greater independence.

Summertime, she adds, can be particularly hard for older caregivers because school is out and hot weather can aggravate their health problems.

In response, Grand Central coordinates a free summer program for kids and their caregivers. For Ashley, 6, her paid trip to Sumneytown, Pa., was the first time she'd ever been away to camp.

"She's had so many disappointments in her life," says her grandmother, Elizabeth Green, 71. "If it weren't for Grand Central, I don't know what I'd have done."

While she is pleased with how Grand Central has assisted her and Ashley, she recognizes that the program is underfunded. "They need help," says Green, who hopes to volunteer for Grand Central once Ashley is a little older.

The Philadelphia program operates on less than $400,000 a year, which comes from state and federal grants and a little private money. Grand Central encompasses more than 15 local grandparent support groups, public and private agencies linked to caregivers in city health centers, the Women, Infants and Children Program, the Parents Union for Better Schools, the Salvation Army, family courts and the recreation department, among other groups.

UNDER ONE ROOF

While Grand Central strives to be a one-stop hub of social and support services for kinship caregivers, GrandFamilies in Boston is a residential community: It offers affordable housing and supports the special needs of grandparents and their kids in a single location.

"Grandparents often talk about the social isolation they feel as they raise grandchildren. At GrandFamilies House, they are among peers," says Stephanie Chacker, director of housing services for Boston Aging Concerns - Young & Old United, Inc. (BAC-YOU), a nonprofit group that, along with several other nonprofits, started GrandFamilies in 1998.

BAC-YOU developed the GrandFamilies project with the YWCA-Boston and the Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development. GrandFamilies House is the first-of-its-kind housing development—a former nursing home in Dorchester, Mass., transformed into 26 apartments, each with two to four bedrooms and accessible features for residents with disabilities.

What grandparents may value most at GrandFamilies is being part of a community. "They can help each other … by sharing resources, such as baby-sitting," Chacker says. "The grandchildren, likewise, are [part of] a community."

The program also focuses on education, health care and other services children need. The YWCA-Boston runs a center in GrandFamilies House that offers day care, after-school care, homework help and intergenerational computer classes.

That's important because "there is a great generation gap when it comes to homework," Chacker says. "There's 'old math' and 'new math'—and technology has changed so much the grandparents often feel they can't help" kids with their homework.

As Grand Central's Campbell-Jackson points out, "The older the caregiver taking care of a child, the harder it is."

Adds grandmother Elizabeth Green, a program like Grand Central is "the only thing for people in my situation."