Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership (COIPP)

First, I would use the money to enhance current activities and offerings, which would mean:  (a) increasing our current scholarship program –– directed at children, caregivers and those released from prison -- from two-year colleges to four-year schools and trade schools; (b) adding to the books we buy for children; (c) increasing the children's activities we offer and also funding after-school activities; and (d) ensuring that our families have high quality technology to enable the children to be competitive in today's world. Second, I would add to the Scher Family Fund, established at the Community Foundation of Frederick, Md., so that the work of COIPP can continue well into the future. This fund offers an annual percentage of money to COIPP from our $25,000 fund. Third, I would take our current work and extend it into other states. I receive numerous requests from all over the USA, as well as internationally, but to date have not had the people power nor finances to offer full assistance to those who wish to replicate our work. This would allow us to hire staff to help meet this objective.

My life has been filled with success. As an educator for 54 years, I have been involved in teaching and supervising teachers from preschool to college. My personal interest has always been on students and families who have lifetime struggles, including generational poverty. While I was from a loving family, my father unexpectedly went to prison when I was a teen. That experience  colored my life. Because I understand the struggles and trauma of children who have a parent in jail, I knew that I had to start an organization that could help children in this situation. That led to my founding COIPP whose purpose is: to help children impacted by incarceration; assist their caregivers; and, when possible, assist the incarcerated parent.  COIPP offers everything from weekend activities for children, scholarships for the family members, workshops for caregivers on relevant topics, parenting classes in the jail and more.  My goal is to keep COIPP growing and expanding so that we can do the work necessary to help children reach their potential and have caring support throughout their journey.

The United States has, proportionately, more incarceration than any other western country. Over 2.7 million children across the nation have an incarcerated parent. In the state of Maryland there are over 90,000 children with a parent in jail/prison. The majority of those incarcerated are people of color. According to national statistics, caregivers are usually financially struggling, have limited education and are often elderly. The often-cited work on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) finds that having an incarcerated parent, along with 3 or more of the other risk factors, can lead to a lifetime of emotional, educational, social and physical difficulties.  All of these factors influence our work; every activity is designed to be protective when ACEs risks are high. COIPP has a "working board". Thanks to these tireless volunteers, we offer children weekend fun activities, a lending/giving library at the jail, giveaways of children's shoes, boots, jackets, clothing, hygiene supplies, books on topics of relevance and more.  For caregivers we offer emergency gift cards, workshops throughout the community, respite meetings, and more. For those in jail we offer parenting classes, reconnecting classes, and more. For everyone we offer scholarships to our local community college and more.

We are the only organization that we know of that does the kind of work we do. We know of no other organization that serves the children, the person in jail/prison and the caregiver. And, notably, we are all volunteers and we are nonsectarian. We purchase only new, quality resources for our families.  We want everything we give away to be sturdy and respectful of all cultures. For example, we have a library of children's books that we distribute to family members when they complete a workshop with us or when they graduate from our in-jail Parenting Classes. These books are always new, award winning, hardback, in Spanish when available and chosen to meet the unique needs of our children. Lastly, we write curriculum to meet our families unique needs. We write all our parenting and workshop materials, always including a handbook for the participants. These materials are based on real life situations. I have spoken at conferences throughout Maryland, the nation and in other countries and I also receive requests for our materials from around the world. I am always happy to oblige. 

Our evaluations show that we are having a great impact. The steps we take include:

Choosing a dedicated board-- I have worked hard to enlist a "working board" of individuals who are dedicated to this cause. We are all volunteers, some with personal connections to this issue, and we all want to enrich the lives of children. We work tirelessly to execute our mission and attend workshops to improve our performance.

Reaching out to the community-- We need donations and grants to provide the high quality services we provide. Accordingly, we must inform the community of our work and make ourselves available for speaking engagements, articles and interviews. It is endless work. However, our donations and community support keep growing so that our work can thrive.  

Listening to our participants--  I feel strongly about listening to our COIPP participants; they know what they need. Programs such as Covid Emergency Giveaways, Respite meetings, "Zoom" children's activities, all began when a caregiver or child talked about what they needed. I am here to serve them, and I know they trust me because of my personal background and my ability to act when asked.