Tuffy's Kits for
Kin-nected Families 

Supporting kinship families across the Concho Valley with tools for connection, learning, and healing.

What are Tuffy's Kits for Kin-nected Families?

When parents are unable to care for their children, relatives and close family friends often step in. These kinship caregivers—grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, family friends—provide love, safety, and stability, often with very little notice and very little support.

Tuffy's Kits for Kin-nected Families exists to walk alongside these families—bringing comfort, connection, and practical support when it’s needed most. Through Tuffy, a symbol of strength and reassurance, SAFN helps ensure caregivers don’t have to navigate this journey alone. 

We deliver trauma-informed, education-focused Family Kits directly to kinship homes across the Concho Valley, giving caregivers practical tools to support a child’s healing, learning, and emotional well-being right where it matters most: at home.

This program is generously launched with founding support from the San Angelo Kiwanis Club, The Hall Children's Crisis Foundation, Shamrock Capital, and the Dierschke Brothers Family.

Why This Program Matters

Children in kinship care have often experienced loss, instability, or trauma. Even in the care of loving relatives, they may struggle with big feelings, behavior changes, and learning challenges.

At the same time, kinship caregivers frequently:

• Step into the role suddenly, without time to prepare

• Receive less financial and training support than traditional foster parents

• Juggle work, health, and other family responsibilities

• Live in rural or hard-to-reach areas where services are limited

The result: families are doing everything they can, but often don’t have the tools, time, or access to the supports they need.

Kin-nected Families was created to fill this gap—by bringing resources to the family instead of asking families to come to us.

What’s Inside Tuffy's Kit?

Each kit is designed using Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) principles—Connecting, Empowering, and Correcting—to help children feel safe and supported, and to equip caregivers with simple, practical strategies.

A typical kit may include:

• Storybooks and family reading activities to encourage bonding and build early literacy

• Games and social-emotional activities to support emotional awareness, empathy, and shared joy

• STEAM projects and hands-on learning tools to spark curiosity, creativity, and confidence

• Art supplies and journals to provide safe outlets for self-expression

• Sensory tools and fidgets to help release nervous energy and support calming and focus

• Play-based connection items that encourage laughter, trust, and positive interaction

• Caregiver wellness supports such as hydration tools, calming activities, and rest-focused items to help caregivers stay regulated, patient, and present

• TBRI Kin-nection Cards with practical caregiver tips for connecting, calming, and guiding behavior

• A caregiver resource guide with trauma-informed strategies and trusted local support contacts

Thanks to a partnership with Good360, many of these materials are obtained at steep discounts, allowing every donated dollar and grant dollar to go further.

Who the Program Serves

Tuffy's Kits for Kin-nected Families serves:

• Children ages 0–18

• Living in kinship care arrangements (formal or informal)

• In San Angelo and across the Concho Valley, including rural counties where services can be limited

Caregivers may be:

• Grandparents

• Aunts and uncles

• Older siblings

• Close family friends or “fictive kin”

Our goal is simple: to make sure these families never feel alone and that every child has access to tools that support growth and healing.

How the Program Works

1. Referral & Identification
   Families are identified through SAFN, DFPS, CASA, the Children’s Advocacy Center, community partners, and self-referral.

2. Kit Matching
   Kits are matched to each family’s needs (age ranges, developmental needs, number of children).

3. Home Delivery or Coordinated Pickup
   SAFN volunteers coordinate delivery or pickup, reducing barriers of transportation and schedule.

4. Follow-Up & Support
   Families receive follow-up contact to check in, answer questions about using the materials, and connect them to additional supports if needed.

Early Outcomes We Hope to See

Through Kin-nected Families, we aim to:

• Increase positive connection time between caregivers and children

• Improve children’s emotional regulation and sense of safety

• Support learning and school readiness through literacy and STEAM activities

• Reduce caregiver stress by providing tools and ideas they can use right away

• Strengthen the overall resilience of kinship families in the Concho Valley

How You Can Get Involved

For kinship caregivers:
If you are a grandparent, relative, or family friend raising a child and you’d like to learn more about receiving a Kin-nected Family Kit, please contact:
Patrick Dierschke – patrick@sanangelofamily.org | 325-716-9769

For community partners:
If you work with families (schools, churches, agencies, nonprofits) and would like to refer kinship caregivers or help distribute kits, we’d love to collaborate.

For supporters and donors:
This program was made possible through a generous grant from the San Angelo Kiwanis Club and the Dierschke Brothers Family. Additional support helps us reach more families and deepen what each kit can provide. Donate here

Together, We Keep Children with Family

Tuffy's Kits for Kin-nected Families is about more than supplies in a box. It is about:

• Affirming that families who step up are not alone

• Giving children space to heal, play, and learn

• Strengthening the safety net of kinship care in the Concho Valley

When we support kinship families, we protect what children need most: safe, stable, loving relationships with the people who know them best.