The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot a survey and knowledge mapping tool to provide information about:

• The issues of concern to grandparents and
• The services, professional and others, from whom grandparents with childrearing responsibilities seek support for their grandparenting role and whose capacity for this work could be resourced and supported.

The Assumptions of this project are:

• Grandparents themselves are the very best source of information about their needs and the agencies, services, professionals and individuals from whom they seek and gain support;
• Most people know others - people, agencies, professionals in the community whom they trust and from whom they seek support and advice. Such people are knowledge brokers and they act as intermediaries between existing knowledge and those who need it
• Building on and resourcing existing relationships, networks, agencies and support systems builds capacity by leveraging the confidence and connections that already exist in communities. Mapping these sources of knowledge and support is a crucial first step in developing a sustainable support system for grandparents with child rearing responsibilities.
• A sustainable system of support almost inevitably leverages what exists rather than positing the creation of new programs and resources.
• Trusting stable relationships with known adults are the foundation for the social and emotional foundations of growth and learning in young children.
• Knowledge maps and information gained from the tool developed will complement the work of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

There will be direct work with Grandparents to:

• Tease out the issues of concern/uncertainty/pressure about grandparents child rearing role in particular but also about issues that are worrying them generally. This information will be used in the survey development.
• Provide the background necessary for the development of the knowledge map templates and examples.
• Develop draft knowledge maps and test their efficacy with participants and
• Test the proposition that there may be multiple knowledge maps depending on the categories of issues.

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