New Haven Independent

“Most of the kids who were out here today were here with their grandparents,” said Harris (pictured at top with her six-year-old granddaughter, Kayla Marie Harris). The West River activist brought a pile of burgers, dogs and soda to Lighthouse Point Park on a recent afternoon, hosting an open event for her grandparents advocacy group.

Harris, who’s raising her 14-year-old grandson, Jaiquan, started the group to “bring awareness” to those who are filling in for fathers and mothers by bringing up their younger kin. Grandparents and relatives need to fight for more legal power, and access to state aid, for raising their young, Harris argued. Plus, they need to know “they’re not alone.”

As tunes from Jaiquan’s boombox flowed inside the carousel pavilion, beach-goers stopped in to mingle with Harris’s West River crew. At the end of an all-day cookout, she said 50 to 60 people had come through.

Anyone interested in joining the group — unofficially called West River Grandparents and Relatives Raising the Future— should contact Jackie Harris at 772-2492.