GRANDPARENTS OFTEN FORCED TO BECOME PARENTS, AGAIN

It's easy to be inspired by Communities in Schools.

For the past two decades, this organization has spearheaded
initiatives to stop youths from being so weighed down by the baggage
in their lives until they see school as part of that burden, instead
of as an opportunity.

It tries to do that through initiatives such as Team Up, which
provides enrichment activities for students after school; Achievers
for Life, which lends academic help to struggling sixth-graders; and
Take Stock in Children, which provides scholarships and mentors to
high school students.

Duncan Jackson, however, is also inspiring.

Jackson is grandfather to 9-year-old Jason Jackson. When Jason was
only 2, his mother's estranged boyfriend killed himself and her, and
shot Jason in the head. The child survived, but the shooting robbed
him of full mobility on the right side of his body.

Jackson, however, refused to let a limp rob the boy of his confidence.
So he enrolled him in Jump Start Strings, a program offered by
Communities in Schools and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra which
has, according to The Times-Union, not only taught Jason how to play
the violin, but how to build his esteem. They focused on what he has,
rather than on what he's lost.

Yet, it took someone like Jackson to believe in his grandson enough to
find a resource like Jump Start Strings. And increasingly, it seems
that more grandparents are going to have to muster the moxie to do
what Jackson did.

That's because grandparents rearing grandchildren is a trend that
isn't going away.

Census figures show that as of 2005, 5.7 million children were living
with grandparents. That's 8 percent of all children in the United
States, and an increase of 6 million children since 1990.

That's happening for a number of reasons.

In Jackson's case, the murder of Jason's mother and an absent father
left him as the primary caretaker. But a more disturbing reason behind
this trend is the drug trade and the mass incarceration that it has
produced.

According to research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, on any given
day, more than 1.5 million children have a parent serving time in a
state or federal prison. That population has swelled because of
tougher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses; offenses that are
often rooted in addiction.

Between 1995 and 2005, the number of incarcerated women increased by
57 percent, compared to 34 percent for men. On top of that, 75 percent
of imprisoned women are mothers. And more than half of all prisoners,
both federal and state, are parents of children younger than 18.

Many of those children wind up living with grandparents.

Then there's abuse and neglect. In many cases, outright abandonment
puts grandparents in charge of protecting their grandchildren from the
demons that claimed their children.

That's why it's good that Communities in Schools exists.

Too many times, when the conversation turns to at-risk youths, people
dismiss such programs as a handout for irresponsible parents who want
outsiders to do everything for them. But the truth is that many
children who benefit from Communities in Schools, and programs like
it, aren't even being reared by their parents. Many are being reared
by responsible and mature grandparents who care deeply about them, but
who don't have access to resources.

Resources like, in Jason's case, after-school violin
lessons.

That's why, as Communities in Schools celebrates its 20th anniversary,
it's important to remember grandparents like Jackson. Grandparents who
see its programs as more than busy work, but as a way to give at least
one generation a chance to live up to its potential, and not be
dragged down by pathology.