Creating Relatives You Don't Have: Kinship Care, Social Services and Fictive Kin

What can we learn about kinship care and the effective delivery of supportive social services when we talk to relative caregivers in San Francisco, California? Practicing anthropology in a social service setting with kinship caregivers raises some interesting questions regarding "fictive kin" and effective social service delivery. Our findings from a four-year mixed methods study of kinship care families illuminate the ways that kinship families rely on a community-based social service program in a familial manner. Furthermore, the perception of social service providers functioning like extended family members both increases client satisfaction with the services as well as the ability of social service workers to build positive working relationships with clients.