Children of incarcerated parents find community at summer camp

Wisconsin’s Camp Reunite is bringing together women experiencing incarceration with their children. The camp was hosted at Taycheedah, a correctional facility in Fond du Lac, WI, and while the kids were there had less security and more carnival games. Parental incarceration has a strong effect on children and on the parent/child bond, something Camp Reunite hopes to help repair.

Project Phoenix offers a one-year preventative mental health initiative for teens in underserved communities. It provides trauma-informed therapy and social-emotional learning through art, theater, writing and music, as well as education on human and sexual rights. The program aims to equip vulnerable youth with skills to combat mental health challenges and has impacted over 76,500 individuals so far

Connecticut is attempting to reduce prison recidivism by changing parole practices. Changes to the system are allowing parole officers to foster relationships with parolees and counsel them as people, not as cases.

Millions of families of arrested individuals do not know what to do to help, how to obtain a lawyer, or what the process entails in the court system. Created by Albert Cobarrubius Justice Project, participatory defense is a type of community organizing that teaches and empowers people who face criminal charges. Individuals know how to work with attorneys in order to navigate the system and ultimately feel equipped to become drivers of their own change.

Via legislative efforts, six U.S. prison systems and dozens of jails have made phone calls free for incarcerated people (with governments paying providers instead of families). This has resulted in 600 million additional calls, 6.4 billion more call minutes, over $620 million in savings for families, and improved mental health, family connections, and prison environments.

Fab Youth Philly’s Play Captains program hires teens in the summer to lead play groups on multiple streets throughout the city, leading games and activities like science experiments and storytime. Since 2017, the group has supported over 500 teens, providing many of them with their first jobs. Data shows that participating in the program leads to more on-time high school graduations, better work habits, reduced summer slide and improved employability and family finances.

RESTORE is a juvenile re-entry program offering supportive programming and guidance to intervene in cycles of crime and help more youth avoid the juvenile system and learn to make more positive choices. Already this year, RESTORE has served 344 young people through their workshops. Since launching in 2023, the program has helped 19 people graduate with their high school diploma, GED or a certification.

Kings Kids Outreach provides youth with mentorship, tutoring, school supplies, counseling and other summer programs to help improve their academic performance, reduce absenteeism and protect them from growing rates of violence in the city. The group provides services to more than 2,000 children and, from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, reduced chronic absenteeism from 26.2% to 12.7%

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties hosts workshops for incarcerated youth to teach them about sexual wellness, as well as the elements of healthy relationships, consent and the consequences of toxic masculinity. The workshops educate young men so they can have the knowledge they — and their partners — need to have better health outcomes. The workshops began in 2013 and expect to reach about 300 incarcerated teens and young men by the end of June as they continue expanding.

The Quinault Indian Nation’s Family Wellness Court provides a culturally relevant alternative to traditional Western court systems that focuses on healing rather than punishment. 100 of the 400 tribal courts in the country have wellness courts for adults, families and youth, providing substance use disorder support, mental health care, and other family support services.