Big Brothers Big Sisters National Office
A one-to-one mentoring organization for children.
Resource guide
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Organizations serving incarcerated people, people coming home, and the children, families, and communities living through incarceration with them.
Restoration noteThis directory was recovered from an archived version of Locked In and Locked Out. Contact details may have changed; verify them directly with each organization before relying on them.
19 organizations
Children & mentoring
Children of Incarcerated Parents Mentoring
Notre Dame—AmeriCorps’s CHIP program provides one-on-one mentoring for children affected by parental incarceration. Partners with area schools and social service agencies to provide educational support for youth and adults.
Girl Scouts Beyond Bars
The goals of the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars (GSBB) program are to lessen the impact of parental separation due to incarceration, to foster the personal and social development of girls and their mothers, and to provide girls with the opportunity to participate with their parents in the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Parents and their daughters take an active leadership role in the planning and implementation of Girl Scout program activities and also participate in facilitated discussions about family life, conflict resolution, and the prevention of violence and drug abuse. After release, parents and daughters can continue to participate in troop meetings in their communities, making Girl Scouting a consistent presence in their lives.
KidsMates Inc.
KidsMates Inc. is a national non-profit organization co-founded by children of incarcerated parents. KidsMates Inc.’s advocacy raises awareness about the silent American epidemic of parental incarceration and its lifelong negative impacts to affected children. The organization implements initiatives aimed at improving outcomes, fostering resilience, and empowering children of incarcerated parents.
21218 St Andrews Blvd, #720, Boca Raton FL 33433kidsmates.org
US Dream Academy
Provides children in grades three through eight daily after-school programming that includes online academic enrichment, which is the cornerstone of the skill-building component, dream building, and character building. Homework assistance and one-to-one mentoring are 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.
We Got Us Now
We Got Us Now is a national nonpartisan organization built by, led by, and about children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration with the mission to engage, educate, elevate, and empower our historically invisible population through the use of digital narratives, safe inclusive spaces, and advocacy led campaigns to ensure our voices are at the forefront of strategic initiatives, practices, and policies that will help to keep our families connected, create fair sentencing and end mass incarceration.
Family support
Angel Tree
Provides Christmas gifts and the gospel message to children on behalf of their incarcerated parents in partnership with local churches. Programs throughout the year include summer camping and mentoring.
Family Services
Assist Jewish families and children of those currently incarcerated connecting them with local community support, assisting with travel expenses to visit the inmate, and setting up support between the families of those incarcerated.
Hope House
Hope House has three main goals: to strengthen families and in particular, the relational bonds between children and their fathers imprisoned far from home; to reduce the isolation, stigma, shame and risk these families experience when fathers and husbands are imprisoned; and to raise public awareness about this most at-risk population.
Volunteers of America
It provides literacy and family-strengthening programming for incarcerated parents and their children. Parents take a class then read and record books. The recordings are given to the children along with a book bag, personal tape player, and other supplies.
Wings Ministry and Wings for L.I.F.E.
Wings Ministry—Christ’s unconditional love shared with all families of prisoners. Wings for L.I.F.E.—Life-skills Imparted to Families through Education.
Communication & visitation
The Messages Project
The Messages Project is focused on the children left behind when a parent is incarcerated in prisons in Virginia, Nebraska, and Missouri several times a year to create videotapes or DVDs from incarcerated parents to their children. The recordings are mailed home to children and families, often with a book that was read as part of the message.
PO Box 8325 9711, 8th View St. Suite 11, Norfolk, VA 23503themessagesproject.org
Prisoner Visitation and Support
PVS is the only nationwide, interfaith visitation program given access by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Defense to visit all federal and military prisoners. They have 300 volunteers across the US who regularly visit over 90 federal and military prisons.
Prison Mail
Prison Mail simplifies communication and encourages constant correspondence between prisoners and their families and loved ones. It uses the convenience of the internet to allow those with incarcerated loved ones to send messages on a regular basis.
Counseling & healing
Institute on Violence, Abuse, And Trauma
Professional services offered at IVAT include conducting child custody evaluations, psychological testing, forensic evaluations, and conducting treatment of a variety of emotional and behavioral problems. Additional direct services available through IVAT include individual, family, re-unification, and group therapy; supervised visitation; and parenting skills classes. Therapy is provided to people with a variety of different problems in our comprehensive program. All services are provided on a sliding fee scale.
10065 Old Grove Road, Suite 101, San Diego, CA 92131ivatcenters.org
Parenting And Family Healing
Provides parenting and family healing to incarcerated individuals; trains counselors, educators, and others in relational healing and peer governance models.
Reentry & advocacy
National Parents and Families Network
Responsible Parenting Training and Consulting; Re-Entry, Recidivism Training, and Consulting; Community Engagement Training and Consulting; Curriculum Writing and Consulting; Counseling and Consulting on Children of Incarcerated Parents; Lecturing and Workshops on issues of Incarceration as it pertains to the family unit and society as a whole; Consulting and Training on how to work with the prison and correctional system; Consulting and Training on Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents.
No Exceptions Prison Collective
No Exceptions Prison Collective is a grassroots initiative in Nashville, Tennessee, dedicated to ending carceral enslavement by advocating that no exceptions be made to the abolition of slavery. Founded and are led by individuals directly impacted by carceral slavery—both insiders (prisoners) and free world folk.
National CURE
International CURE organizes people incarcerated and their loved ones to bring about prison reform.
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