Programs in States: AL-MO

Centerforce

Area Served: San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno Central Valley
Parent Organization: None
Telephone: 415-456-9980
Address: 2955 Kerner Blvd., 2nd floor
San Rafael, CA 94901
E-mail: info@centerforce1.org

Website: https://www.centerforce.ngo

Secondary Office: None
Established: 1971
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Centerforce provides services that support, educate and advocate for individuals, families and communities impacted by incarceration.

Community Mentoring Connections

Area Served: Regional counties surrounding Sacramento, California
Parent Organization: Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency
Telephone: 209-533-1397, ext. 229
Address: 427 N. Hwy. 49, Ste. 305
Sonora, CA 95370
E-mail: elinehan@atcaa.org
Website: https://ca-mentor.com/children-&-families/family-support-services
Secondary Office: 935 South State Hwy 49, Jackson, CA95370
Established:
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Community Mentoring Connection is a regional program matching youth with incarcerated parents with caring adult mentors.

Families and Criminal Justice

Area Served: Varies by project; 3 national projects, 1 statewide project (California), 2 regional projects (Southern California) and 1 local project (Los Angeles County)
Parent Organization: None
Telephone:
Address: Box 50-683
Los Angeles, CA 90050
E-mail: WritetoFCJ@hotmail.com
Website: www.familiesandcriminaljustice.org
Secondary Office: None
Established: 1989
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: No

The Center conducts research, produces and distributes publications, provides technical assistance, trains professionals and offers direct services.The Center’s program of direct services includes educational services, therapeutic services and family reunification services.All services are free to children of criminal offenders and their families.

Friends Outside

Area Served: California
Parent Organization: None
Telephone: 209-955-0701
Address: PO Box 4085 Stockton, CA 95204
E-mail: info@friendsoutside.org
Website: www.friendsoutside.org
Secondary Office: None
Established: 1955
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Programs and services for people impacted by incarceration, including children and families.  Programs include assistance with reentry and family reunification; parenting education, fatherhood programs, alternatives to violence and anger management for incarcerated people.

Get on the Bus

Area Served: California
Parent Organization: The Center for Restorative Justice Works
Telephone: (818) 980-7714
Address: 2350 West Beverly Blvd, 
STE 200 Montebello, CA, 90640
E-mail: info@crjw.org
Contact: Kristal Corona
Secondary Office: None
Established: 2000
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Get On The Bus (also knows as GOTB) helps to reunite children with their incarcerated parents for Mother’s and Father’s day. Children and families throughout the state (and sometimes country) travel to participating prisons in California to have a family-friendly visiting day filled with activities, hugs, laughter, and new memories. The program is supported by an ever-growing community of caring and compassionate individuals and groups coming together to make this all happen! To date, GOTB has helped to reunite over 10,000+ children with their parents. 

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)

Area Served: California
Parent Organization: None
Telephone: 415-255-7036
Address: 1540 Market St, Suite 490
San Francisco, CA 94102
E-mail: info@prisonerswithchildren.org
Website: www.prisonerswithchildren.org
Secondary Office: None
Established: 1978
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

LSPC organizes communities impacted by the criminal justice system and advocates to release incarcerated people, to restore human and civil rights and to reunify families and communities. We build public awareness of structural racism in policing, the courts and prison system and we advance racial and gender justice in all our work. Our strategies include legal support, trainings, advocacy, public education, grassroots mobilization and developing community partnerships.

Lifting Lives

Area Served: Los Angeles, California
Parent Organization: None
Telephone: 626-376-5463
Address: P. O. Box 94019
Pasadena, CA 91109
E-mail: rtaylor220_2000@yahoo.com
Website: None
Secondary Office: None
Established: 2001
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Provide mentoring, tutoring, counseling, and support to children whose parents are incarcerated.

Mentoring Works

Area Served: Amador and Tuolumne County
Parent Organization: Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency
Telephone: 209-533-1397, ext. 229
Address: 427 N. Hwy. 49, Ste. 305
Sonora, CA 95370
E-mail: elinehan@atcaa.org
Website: atcaa.org
Secondary Office: 935 South State Hwy 49, Jackson, CA 95370
Established: 12
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Mentoring Works provides one-on-one matches in Amador and Tuolumne Counties between caring adults and children needing a friend.

POPS the Club 

Area Served: National
Parent Organization: POPstheclub.com, Inc.
Telephone: 310-709-2484
Address: 4160 Lyceum Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90066
E-mail: popsvenice@gmail.com
Website: www.popstheclub.org 
Secondary Office: POPStheclub.com, Inc. c/o Dennis Danziger Venice High School 13000 Venice Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90066
Contact: Amy Friedman
Email: amy@amyfriedman.net
Established: 2013
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

POPStheclub.com, Inc. is a nonprofit dedicated to creating and supporting clubs in high schools across the country for students whose lives have been touched by prison. We are arts-based, publishing POPS students’ works (writing and artwork) in annual anthologies. We support in-school clubs that offer camaraderie, nurturing, compassion, and community for those who too often carry around the pain associated with having an association to prison–those with loved ones who are or have served time and those who have themselves served time.

Project AVARY

Area Served: San Francisco Bay Area, California
Parent Organization: Project Avary
Telephone: 415-457-8799
Address: PO Box 150088 San Rafael, CA 94915-0088 United States
E-mail: join@projectavary.org
Website: https://www.projectavary.org/
Secondary Office: None
Established: 1999
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

National online support groups to children of incarcerated parents (CIPs). All participants, including counselors, are CIPs. The groups are free and fun. Youth can meet others going through similar experiences and develop leadership skills at the same time.

Santa Rita Inmate Services

Area Served: Alameda County, California
Parent Organization: Teaching and Loving Kids (T.A.L.K.)
Telephone: 925-551-6580
Address: 5325 Broder Blvd.
Dublin, CA 94583
E-mail: dimsplace@aol.com
Website: http://www.acsoyfsb.org/
Secondary Office: None
Established: 1990
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: No

Provides parenting, life skills, and reunification training with enhanced visitation for program participants.

The Place4Grace

Parent Organization:

Area Served: California

Address: 2441 N Sierra Way, San Bernardino, CA 92405

E-mail: info@theplace4grace.org

Website: https://Theplace4grace.org

Phone: 909-554-3919

Established: 2009

Volunteer Opportunities? Yes

The Place4Grace was founded in 2009 with the mission to restore families and advocate for children impacted by incarceration. Our programs serve families and children of incarcerated men and women with a focus on family reunification, literacy, providing an environment for extended father and child bonding time, advocacy, and restoration.

Due to an overwhelming lack of programs available assisting fathers and mothers to maintain contact with their child while incarcerated, the Place4Grace’s programs are designed to ensure that strong family bonds between the children and their incarcerated parents are maintained and to ease the trauma in children caused by sharing their parent’s sentence. Our programs are also an important motivator for fathers and mothers to remain discipline free and to participate in positive programming, which lowers recidivism rates upon the parent’s release. Our services includes Camp Grace, Family2Child, Parent and Child Connection & Home2Stay.

Start with a Story

Parent Organization: Alameda County Library
Area Served: Alameda County, CA
Address: 2450 Stevenson Blvd. Freemont, CA 94538
E-mail: seas@aclibrary.org
Website: https://startwithastory.wordpress.com/
Phone: 510-745-1511
Established: 2007
Volunteer Opportunities? Yes

“Start With a Story”, a project of the Alameda County Library, delivers story times, free books, and family literacy activities to children, ages 1-16 years old, who visit their parents at jails in Alameda County. More than 125 children are served through this program each week.

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Colorado

Connecticut

Connecticut Children with Incarcerated Parents (CIP) Initiative

Area Served: Connecticut

Parent Organization:

Telephone: 959-200-3856

Address: 10 Prospect Street,Hartford Times Building, Room 432
Hartford, CT 06103
United States

Email: aileen.keays@uconn.edu

Website: http://ctcip.org/

Established: 2008

Volunteer/ Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Since fiscal year 2008, the Institute for Municipal & Regional Policy (IMRP) has been receiving annual funding from the Connecticut General Assembly to administer competitive grants for providing positive interventions for at-risk youth whose parent(s) and/or family members have been incarcerated. The IMRP continually seeks to gain an additional understanding of these children and their service-needs through research, evaluation and outreach activities. As-such, the IMRP, in collaboration with several faculty members from the Connecticut State College & Universities system, as well as other universities and colleges, is evaluating the effectiveness of direct care services in alleviating negative responses to parental incarceration and improving the positive attributes of children with incarcerated parents. The mission for the CIP Initiative is to improve the quality of supports for children with incarcerated parents by using the various data and knowledge it gains to inform public policy and practice.
The CIP Initiative provides supportive funding for diverse programs seeking to support CIP. The CIP Initiative is also dedicated to providing information that may be helpful to those with a loved one in a Connecticut correctional facility. This resource is for parents and caregivers who are facing a prison sentence, as well as for those returning home from a term of incarceration, their children, their children’s remaining caregiver, other loved ones, volunteers and staff who work with or on behalf of children with a parent incarcerated, policymakers, advocates, and researchers.

Fresh Start Community Reentry Program

Area Served: Connecticut – Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford, and five prison sites.
Parent Organization: Family ReEntry, Inc.
Telephone: 203-838-0496
Address: Administrative Offices, 9 Mott Avenue, Suite 104
Norwalk, CT 6850
E-mail: info@familyreentry.org
Website: www.familyreentry.org
Secondary Office: 126 Washington Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 6604
Established: 1984
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Family ReEntry’s efforts are aimed at comprehensively and effectively addressing the enormous social problems related to crime, violence, abuse, and the unprecedented rates of costly incarceration.Our wide range of behavioral health, substance abuse, case management, domestic violence, mentoring, violence prevention, and parenting programs along with our innovative community reentry program, reentry housing pilot project, and cutting-edge entrepreneurial employment and training businesses help empower individuals and strengthen families & communities; resulting in increased public safety, reduced cost to taxpayers, and vast improvements in quality of life for individuals, families, and communities.

Institute for Municipal & Regional Policy

Area Served: Connecticut
Parent Organization– Central CT State University
Telephone : 860 832 1873
Address: – 114 Vance Academic Center; 1615 Stanley Street New Britain, CT 06050
Email: keaysaik@ccsu.edu
Website: http://www.ccsu.edu/imrp
Established: 2007
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities? Yes

Since fiscal year 2008 the IMRP has been receiving annual funding from the Connecticut General Assembly to administer competitive grants for providing positive interventions for at-risk youth whose parent(s) and/or family members have been incarcerated. All of these services are being evaluated using a mixed methods action research model by CCSU faculty, students and staff as part of the IMRP project evaluation team. Additionally, over the past few years the IMRP has leveraged CCSU’s resources by 1) partnering with several University faculty, classes, and individual students on community engagement initiatives aimed at this population and 2) increasing overall awareness of the issue through print and visual media and the hosting of a statewide conference. The overall goal is to use the various data and knowledge gained in all of our efforts to inform intervention and public policy development.

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Delaware

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Florida

Children of Inmates

Area Served: Florida

Telephone: 1 (888) 757- KIDZ(5439)

Email: //info@childrenofinmates.org

Website: https://www.childrenofinmates.org/Home.aspx

Volunteer opportunities: Yes

We coordinate wrap-around services, conduct Bonding Visits, and advocate for stronger policies to strengthen the bond between children and their incarcerated parents and mitigate the trauma caused by the separation.

Father & Child Resource Center

Area Served: Martin County, Florida
Parent Organization: None
Telephone: None
Address: 2026 S E Ocean Blvd
Stuart, FL 34996
E-mail: dcardno@mchealthystart.org
Website: https://www.mchealthystart.org/programs/father–child-resource-center/
Secondary Office: None
Established: 2000
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Services designed to help fathers play a productive role in their children’s lives

Mentors Opening Doors Enriching Lives (MODEL) Mentoring Program

Area Served: Central Florida
Parent Organization: Children’s Home Society of Florida
Telephone: 321-397-3000
Address: 1485 S. Semoran Blvd Suite 1402
Winter Park, FL 32792
E-mail: amanda.choos@chsfl.org
Website: www.chsfl.org
Contact: Amanda Choos, Volunteer Coordinator
Email: amanda.choos@chsfl.org
Direct Phone: 321-397-3002
Secondary Office: None
Established:
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

MODEL Mentoring is a one to one community-based mentoring program for children that have at least one parent or parental figure in state or federal prison. Youth must be 4-18 years old and live in Seminole Orange or Osceola County.

The Walls To Bridges Project

Area Served: California
Address: PO Box 20250 San Jose, CA 95160 United States
Website: http://wallstobridgesproject.org
Contact: Matt Sioson
Email: wallstobridges@gmail.com
Type of Services Provided: Direct service (works with children, caregivers, or parents)
Area of Focus: Education program (for children)                                                                                           

Services are provided for children: When parents are in prison                                                                           

Do you provide services for parents: While in prison and immediately before release
Established: 2019
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

The Walls to Bridges Project sends educational resources and books to children on behalf of their incarcerated family in the state of California. There is no cost to participate and no limit per family. If you or anyone you know would like to participate, please send an email to wallstobridges@gmail.com

U.S Dream Academy

Area Served: Florida
Telephone:(407) 245-1810 x 2340
Address: 2220 W. 29th Street Orlando, FL 32805
Website: www.usdreamacademy.org
Secondary Office: None
Established: 1998

Provides children in grades 3 through 8 daily after-school programming that includes on-line academic enrichment, which is the cornerstone of the Skill-building component, Dream building and Character building. Homework assistance and one to one mentoring is also provided. Programs currently in Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; East Orange, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Orlando, FL;Houston, TX; Salt Lake City, UT; Memphis, TN; Los Angeles, CA; Indianapolis, IN

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Georgia 

Camp Hope, Mentors4Hope, Interns4Tomorrow

Area Served: Metro Atlanta Counties
Parent Organization: kidz2leader, Inc.
Telephone: (770) 977-7751
Address: 4385 Lower Roswell Road Marietta, GA 30068
E-mail: info@kidz2leaders.org
Website: www.kidz2leaders.org
Established: 1999
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: No

kidz2leaders works to change the direction of the lives of children of inmates by providing Christian programming and a fun environment.

Community Chaplaincy Outreach

Area Served: Atlanta, Ga. Metro area.
Parent Organization: Community
Phone: 404-580-2194
Address: P.O. Box 1366 Jonesboro, Ga. 30237-1366
Email: bernellwesley@bellsouth.net
Website: http://www.disciple52.wix.com/communitychaplaincy
Secondary Office: 
Volunteer Opportunities?: Yes

Yes. The six main pillars of grief/loss that we provide training for, and which are addressed with children in the peer support groups, are death, separation/divorce, incarceration (of a parent or other immediate family member), military deployment, deportation, or chronic illness. They discuss things like feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, etc, how to communicate their feelings, what changes will occur when the family member is gone, how to deal with those changes, healthy ways to manage their stress, coping with traumatic situations, etc. 

Foreverfamily

Area Served: Atlanta and surrounding area
Phone: (404)658-9606
Address: 765 McDaniel Street, S. W. Suite 3104 Atlanta, GA 30310
Website: https://www.foreverfam.org/
Established: 1987
Volunteer Opportunities?: Yes

Foreverfamily works to ensure that, no matter what the circumstances, all children have the opportunity to be surrounded by the love of family. We focus our efforts on some of the most marginalized children in our society—those with an incarcerated parent or parents—and support them as they, their parents, caregivers and extended families work to remain a family.

Mentoring Children of Promise in Central Georgia

Area Served: 15 counties in Central Georgia: Baldwin, Bibb, Crawford, Greene, Hancock, Houston, Jasper, Jones, Laurens, Monroe, Peach, Putnam, Twiggs, Washington, Wilkinson
Parent Organization: Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Heart of Georgia
Telephone: 478-745-3984
Address: 777 Walnut StreetMacon, GA 31201
E-mail: dianna.glymph@bbbsheartga.org; agency@bbbsheartga.org
Website: www.bbbsheartga.org
Secondary Office: 320 Hancock, Milledgeville, GA31061
Established: 1953
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Provide screened and trained mentors for children of incarcerated parents.

NIA Support Group

Area Served: Metro Atlanta

Parent Organization: National Incarceration Association

Telephone:(470)-331-8139

Address: 1483 Wood Thrush Way, Marietta, GA 30062 United States

E-mail: abby.cook@joinnia.com

Website: https://joinnia.com/

Established: 2021

Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

A support group for people with a family or friend incarcerated.

Motherhood Beyond Bars

Area Served: Georgia

Parent Organization: None

Telephone: 404-313-0338

Address: 1799 Briarcliff Rd, Box 15276,  Atlanta GA 30333

Email: amy@motherhoodbeyond.org

Website: https://www.motherhoodbeyond.org

Established: 2018

Volunteer / Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Motherhood Beyond Bars ensures a healthy start for infants born to incarcerated women by providing a network of comprehensive support for mothers and caregivers. We support and strengthen families with the goal of long-term, healthy reunification and a permanent end to cycles of incarceration in families.

We launched our Caregiver Support Program in May, 2020 to provide direct services, informational, and emotional support to caregiver families who are caring for an infant who has a mother in prison. Our program aims to stabilize vulnerable families and provide the best opportunity for healthy and long-lasting family reunification when the mother is released from prison. We have successfully enrolled every infant born since May, 2020, into our program. Using historical data, we expect an average of 50 families to enroll annually.

The effort is the first of its kind in Georgia and begins the minute a pregnant woman enters the prison system. We make direct contact with mothers, communicate with chosen caregivers before the baby is born, and begin developing local and statewide resources to help create a strong network of support for mothers, caregivers and infants. When caregivers arrive at the hospital to pick up the baby (this happens after the mother has returned to prison), hospital staff provide an MBB Begin Box to caregivers, which includes everything a caregiver needs to safely care for a newborn including: diapers, formula, a safe sleeping space, newborn clothing, bathing supplies, and dozens of other items (estimated value per box: $250). Caregivers tell us that these newborn supplies have been “lifesavers.” Every caregiver family is then matched with a Motherhood Beyond Bars Navigator who provides ongoing support to the family. We send every family a monthly supply of diapers and wipes and make sure that families are enrolled in social service programs for which they are eligible

Hawaii

Supporting Families Affected by Incarceration

Area Served: Hawaii
Parent Organization: Keiki O Ka Aina Family Learning Centers
Telephone: 808-843-2502
Address: 3097 Kalihi Street
Honolulu, HI 96819
E-mail: contact@keikiokaain.org
Website: https://www.koka.org/sfai/
Secondary Office: None
Established: 2003
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

Services for children, caregivers, and incarcerated parents through mentoring, parenting classes, and parent-child interactive sessions to help families maintain bonds and children to thrive despite being affected by incarceration.

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Idaho

Story Link

Area Served: Idaho

Parent Organization: Saint Mark’s Catholic Community
Telephone: 208-484-5326
Address: 760 Northview Boise, ID 83704

E-mail: markojis@msn.com or StoryLinkIdaho2015@gmail.com
Website: stmarksboise.org
Volunteer/Internship Opportunities?: Yes

To strengthen the bond between an inmate and their child or grandchild by reading a children’s book while a volunteer from the program records it. The book and CD is than mailed to the child.

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Illinois

Amachi

Area Served: Illinois
Parent Organization: Tower of Refuge, Inc.
Telephone:  217-241-9911
Address: 329 S New St Springfield, IL 62704
Email: info@towerofrefugeinc.com

Website: http://www.chicagolamp.org/

Secondary Office:
Secondary Phone:
Established: 2005
Volunteer Opportunities? Yes

Tower of Refuge is a grassroots organization whose primary purpose is to reduce the rate of recidivism in the state of Illinois through various programs and community effort. We provide a continuum of services to address the complete needs of individuals who are incarcerated, once were incarcerated and their families. Our services include training, education, counseling, HIV/AIDS awareness and homelessness prevention through housing assistance.  Our services and programs focus on improving the successful continuous rehabilitation of the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated while rebuilding and reconciling family relationships.