| Contents | Introduction | Part I. | Part II. |
| Part III. | Part IV. | Part V. | Part VI. |

GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING:
IMPLICATIONS FOR ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Support Groups - the Core of Grassroots Organizations
Organized Data Strengthens the Cause
Cultural Change Spawns Actions
Conclusion

By Patricia Slorah

When I talk about my research on grandparents of children at-risk, people often remark that they are glad that I chose this topic. My reply is always the same. I did not choose this topic, it chose me. This is a personal issue for me because of events within my own family. This situation puts me in the precarious position of being what is known in our field as a "native anthropologist." there are both positive and negative aspects of this situation. The most salient positive is that it allows me to build rapport with people and in situations to which I would not otherwise be privy. The most outstanding negative is that as an anthropologist, I feel a moral obligation to remain available to my research population. Since my field work, I continue to receive an average of three or four calls and several letters a day requesting information on visitation rights. I have adapted by developing form letters, charts of state laws, a 43-page booklet and a small consulting practice. Despite my best efforts, it still costs to run this service. It is not a business.

My odyssey with grandparents' rights began in my own family. My worry about my grandchild's welfare placed me in a painful position and I could do very little to help her. Oddly enough I had first been informed of grandparents' rights by my daughter's attorney. He told me I might need some assistance in this area at sometime in the future and he gave the name of a lawyer who specialized in grandparents' rights. I subsequently contacted him and found his message depressing. Essentially he told me that the costs were high and the rewards were few.

I next sought out my favorite source of comfort, a large bookstore. There I found a book dealing with the issue in aperipheral way. It explored potentially difficult issues between parents and grandparents (Kornhaber, A., Between Parents and Grandparents. New York: Berkeley Books). In the back of the book of the book was an address for those wishing to become involved in a "Grandparents' Movement." I made the connection with other grandparents through this source and became personally involved in the grassroots organizing. At the same time I began my first research project on grandparents' rights.

Support Groups - the Core of Grassroots Organizations top of page

When I began my research, I was interested in why grandparents in increasing numbers were pursuing court-ordered visitation. In order to study population I was told mythis seasoned grandparent advocates that I would need to start a support group. My first thought was that it sounded like agreat deal of work. It was. And it has continued to be. But the rewards are gratifying. From the first announcement in a Tampa Bay newspaper, grandparents began steadily to contact me. Since 1989 several thousand have done so. There is no problem establishing rapport.They all want to tell me their stories.They want answers more than they want support.Support groups rise and fall as people either resolve their situations or lose hope of doing so. However, such groups are vital to grassroots organizing because it is in the groups that advocates are found. Children especially need advocates because they do not vote. They are therefore overlooked by elected officials because without advocates, children can neither help them more hurt them.

Organized Data Strengthens the Cause top of page

My pilot study sought to develop demographic data and some information about the situations coming between grandparents and their grandchildren. "Who is responsible for keeping your grandchild from you?" "Did your grandchild ever live with you?" "When was the last time you saw your grandchild?" My last question was, "Why do you think you have been denied access to your grandchild?" Most answered the last question, "I don't know."

I was obtaining formal informed consent. I insisted that informed consents be signed and dated. No one wanted to do that. They were willing to tell me quite personal information but reluctant to affix a signature to such revelations. I eventually exchanged signed consents and completed questionnaires for information. I finally completed 152 questionnaires. To be fair, the nature of the revelations were often chilling and with potential legal implications. I was told of rapes, the murder of an adult child with the murderers then putting the grandchildren up for adoption. I corroborated the latter story with newspaper accounts. I heard of adult children dying of AIDS, daughters in prison, out-of-wedlock births, divorce, substance abuse and financial problems. There were stories of child abuse of every description and frustration with the powerlessness of the Child Protective Services (CPS).

Anthropological research allowed me to eventually untangle the data and construct a model of the family and social processes.that drove including denial, grandparents were reluctant in written questionnaires to state that grandchildren were beingabused or neglected. Some left the question blank; others would say, "I hope not." even those who did reveal in support groups that the children were being maltreated were reluctant to do so in writing. Most were so shaken by their treatment at CPS that they trusted no one. As a "native anthropologist" they allowed me into their worlds and they talked about what they would not put on the questionnaires about the maltreatment of their grandchildren. I had a year of participant observation, ethnographic fieldwork, and internship.

A common threat in all the families was the number of stressors with which they were coping. Grandparents offered support but also openly criticized the parents about their life. Once of a new boyfriend or stepfather. If the children resisted the newcomer's efforts at discipline, grandparents were blamed for "spoiling." eventually discipline escalated to abuse. In two cases, the mother or the boyfriend was involved in substance abuse so that all resources were used to buy drugs. In cases where the grandchildren had complained of maltreatment, grandparents had reported their own children to CPS. When children were removed from the parental home and placed with grandparents, after family reunification with parents, grandparents were excluded and they sought relief through the courts.

There were nine families in my study. Over the more than a year I stayed in contact, seven experienced documented child maltreatment. In one family, the children were brought to the grandparents by the police officer who arrested their mother for violation of probation. Two toddlers were placed with grandparents in the middle of the night after one child reported sexual abuse by the mother's boyfriend. One child who was in need of immediate medical attention was sent instead to visit the grandparents. When taken to the doctor, the physician made an immediate report to CPS. The child was hospitalized, subsequently removed from the mother and placed in his grandparents' care. Because of these stories, I believe the qualitative data. The stories are likely true, despite the lack of survey questionnaire support.

I classified the surveys into the following classes: children born out of wedlock, death of parent, divorce, intact marriage. For my dissertation I classified the nine families for case study: three with children born out of wedlock, one with intact married parents, three cases of divorce and two involving the death of the adult child. Seven involved documented maltreatment of the children. In four the grandparents sought visitation with grandchildren who had been removed from the parents by CPS. In all cases, the grandparents had provided a home for the children for a period ranging from six months to four years. This suggests that although children who are cut off from grandparents are not necessarily abused, grandparents who seek redress through the courts in many cases have identified the maltreatment through their own extensive care giving to the children.

I wondered whether the grandparents in such situations are viewed as at fault, or flawed, because they had violated cultural norms such as those described by Colleen Johnson in work on

Familia New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988). Our norm of independence is one in which nuclear families function on their own without a great deal of assistance from grandparents. Because of economic conditions and demographic trends of divorce and working mothers, grandparents are again being asked to provide child care. In financial stress, grandparents are asked for help. This dependence on grandparents violates a notion of independence and muddies the noninterference pact between adult children and their parents. The non of noninterference is breached when grandparents offer unsolicited advice. Almost all the grandparents who were seeking court-ordered visitation with their grandchildren had violated these norms.

Cultural Change Spawns Actions top of page

State laws allowing grandparents to petition for visitation are relatively recent, most first appearing in the 1970's.

Media Strategy

In order for political action to generate effective pressure on policy makers, personal stories illustrating the problem are brought to the public.Senior citizens can be noisy and colorful In one part of my state, Florida, several groups of grandparents transported their rocking chairs in pick-up trucks to the courthouse laws. There they proceeded to rock until they got the attention of the news reporters. In Miami, grandparent support group members marched up and down the sidewalk in front of the library where they had their meetings waving hand-made placards. This kind of public action succeeds in getting large color photographs in the Florida newspapers.

To make full use of the media, we learned to cultivate working relationships with the reporters. The job of applied anthropologist is to teach empowerment skills, but also to control access to, and protect vulnerable participants. We learned that reporters like to identify individuals as sources who are organized and available. We learned to anticipate their requests and to provide press packets with the relevant information. That way we avoided many misunderstandings. We also learned to refuse to take offense, even when were baited and we learned to refer hostile questioners to our packet of information. Because we were helpful and organized, severalwriters gave us the (rare) opportunity to review articles beforethey went to press.

In dealing with the press, we also had to train our group leaders to recognize potential advocates, to protect vulnerable members and to ascertain motivations. Sadly, those who are the first to volunteer are often the least suitable for media exposure. Firm group leadership is important therefore to group continuity and to maintaining the desired media posture.

Legislative Strategy

As important as the media are, it is equally important to work effectively with elected officials, many of whom are lawyers. We found that it is important to know laws that currently exist, know how they need to be changed and what has worked or not worked in other states. In this way, we could do the legislators' research for them. We were persistent, organized, and very clear about what we wanted. We tracked our bill every day through committees. We knew who supported it and who opposed it. We had lists of voting grandparents from each of their districts, names, addresses and telephone numbers covering the whole state of Florida. We therefore demonstrated that we understood that the only effective constituency is a constituency and we knew this.

We also learned the time frame for legislation. In Florida, bills that have not been acted on before adjournment, go the back of the legislative docket for the next year. But a bill can make it through all the committees and be brought to a vote in a few hours if the legislators are motivated. So most often we used the telephones, because time was of the essence in getting our bill passed.

Our first bill was passed in 1990. An aide walked off the floor of the state legislature at 4:20 a.m. and called to tell us that our bill had passed. Telephone lines lit up all over Florida as grandparents tearfully related the good news. They had fought the battle and they had won. We went back to the state legislature three years later and were again successful.

Conclusion top of page

Anthropologists are in a strong position to influence family law and child welfare policies through gathering the intimate ethnographic data that make human needs understandable to policy makers. Applied anthropologists can help empower informants by assisting them in identifying goals and achieving collective action. We can be advocates as well as with policy makers if we learn the rules of political action that policy makers know implicitly.

Patricia Slorah holds a B.A. in elementary education with a specialty in early childhood studies. She holds an M.A. in gerontology and Ph.D. in applied anthropology from University of South Florida. She is currently an adjunct professor, teaching Life Span Development in the Department of Gerontology at USF. She is a consultant to grandparents seeking information on visitation rights and is seeking to establish a Grandparenting Research Center at USF. Address: Patricia Slorah, PhD, 1225 North Florida Avenue, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689. Telephone 813-938-7115, FAX 813-937-2317, E-mail gramps@cftnet.com.

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