These are resources of interest that are offered by organizations that have partnered with NRCCFI or our consultants to produce or distribute them. For more information, please contact the sponsoring organization directly.
To request to list your training material, please contact us.
Caring Through Struggle: Caregivers of Children with Incarcerated Parents
Part of the Echoes of Incarceration Project, young filmmakers with incarcerated parents set out to understand some of the hidden consequences of our nations approach to imprisonment. In this first film, the crew journeyed to understand their childhoods being brought up by grandparents, and by extension, the issues caregivers face when raising a child with an incarcerated parent. It involved tough questions, and some surprising realizations when a crew member realizes he has more in common with the grandmothers than he expected.
Life Without: Youth With Incarcerated Parents Tell Their Own Stories
What is life like for children whose mothers or fathers are incarcerated? What happens to parents and grandparents left to care for these children apart from the imprisoned parent? A group of youth spent a week together in the summer of 2009 learning how documentary films are made and then using this new knowledge to tell their own stories of having a parent in prison. The result is Life Without, a series of six poignant vignettes produced by these youth.
Life Without provides an informative glimpse into what life is like for the almost two-and-a-half million children in the United States currently living without an incarcerated parent. These candid tales reveal a wide range of experiences and from each account we learn important lessons about how families cope with trauma and crisis. Life Without features prominently the youth’s caretaking mothers and grandmothers who, despite daunting financial and emotional obstacles, serve as powerful role models and protective factors in their children’s lives. The video reveals the coping skills each youth developed in order to foster resilience and succeed against the odds.
With a running time of 35 minutes, the video is perfectly suited as a training tool in a wide variety of settings.
Produced by Melissa Mummert
Order at www.lifewithoutmovie.com
Arizona Family Members Behind Bars
Arizona Family Members Behind Bars: Difficult Questions Children Ask, and Answers that Can Help: A Caregiver’s Guide to Arizona’s Criminal Justice System from Arrest to Release
This guide, from Kare Family Center of the Arizona’s Children Association, Pima Prevention Partnership, and the AZ Stars Collaboration – is newly available in both English and Spanish, along with an accompanying Activity Packet. To download these items, visit The Partnership or the AZ Caregiver’s Guide in the National Institute of Corrections Library to download this resource.
Echoes of Incarceration
Echoes of Incarceration is a youth-produced documentary project focusing on impact of the prison system on children. The piece, produced by teens with incarcerated parents, uses the dramatic, interwoven stories of four youth, along with interviews with experts in the field, to give voice to the growing epidemic of children with incarcerated parents.
Contact: Jeremy Robbins (917-501-1502 / jeremyrobins7@gmail.com), Ibis Productions, Inc., The College Initiative, Institute for Participatory Action Research and Design
A limited number of these DVDs will be available for free! Contact Jeremy Robbins (above).
The documentary is also available online in it’s entirety at: https://vimeo.com/13794345
Video Toolkit: Family Embraced
This video based toolkit for communities of faith is an excellent resource to strengthen their ministries for children and families of the incarcerated. NRCCFI at FCN Director Ann Adalist-Estrin was the senior consultant to Prison Fellowship Ministries in preparation of this training toolkit. Price of toolkit recently reduced to $50.
Sponsor: Prison Fellowship Ministries- Angel Tree
Contact: http://www.angeltree.org/family-embraced or call: 800-55-ANGEL
Film: Family Ties
A candid conversation with fathers in jail and after release. The film presents the importance of family and the pain of separation — told through the words of 7 men, their families, and the Warden of the Allegheny County (PA) Jail. Produced by award-winning filmmaker Peter Argentine.
Running time: 16 min.:38 seconds.
Sponsor: Pittsburgh Child Guidance Foundation.
Contact: www.PittsburghChildGuidanceFoundation.org
Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights DVD
Sponsor: San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents
Contact: https://www.sfcipp.typepad.com/
Texas Children of Incarcerated Parents Caregiver Guides
These guides are a 2 volume series and are provided for parents, caregivers, social workers, teachers, clergy, mentoring programs or any other organization or individual that seeks to provide support to these children. These guides are available through the Texas Inmate Families Association (TIFA) and are a public service effort from the Texas Children of Incarcerated Parents Project. To download these items, visit: http://tifa.org/public-documents/
Stronger Together, Volume I – We recommend that you read Understanding the Experiences of Children of Incarcerated Parents in its entirety. It will strengthen your understanding of children’s feelings and responses, which will strengthen your ability to effectively respond to children’s needs and in turn create supportive and understanding communities for children and families to live in—and for parents to return to.
Stronger Together, Volume II: Maintaining and Strengthening Family Ties for Children of Incarcerated Parents, from Arrest to Release. Discusses why and how to maintain parent-child relationships and provides Texas resources.
Produced by Theresa Moran
Sponsor: Texas Inmate Families Association
Contact: tifa@tifa.org