Helping Families of Incarcerated Parents Connect

Dear Friend of SICT::

Spring brings warmth, sunshine, flowers,and several holidays. Among the holidays are Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, times when parents and children honor and celebrate their connections with each other.

SICT works to help families with incarcerated parents to keep their connections strong. Through our reading programs at Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility and Washtenaw County Jail, parents read and record books for their child. SICT sends the recording and a copy of the book to the child.This opportunity for connection strengthens a bond that is important to the parent and to the child.

Nationally, more than half of incarcerated women are parents. At Huron Valley, 6 to 10 mothers participate in the SICT program each week, about 400 annually.  They read to their children, ranging in age from six months to teenagers. The most frequently selected books are for children ages seven to ten, a time when reading and being read to is critical for children’s development. The National Institute of Justice has noted that this kind of contact plays an important positive role in a child’s development.

SICT’s work depends on the financial support of people like you. Individual contributions enable us to purchase books, mail recordings and books to children, and maintain recording equipment. A gift of $150 covers the cost of purchasing, recording, and mailing a book to a child every month for a year. $300 enables SICT to support reading in two families for a year. 

In this season of new beginnings and growth, we are deeply appreciative of the financial support that enables us to carry out our programs. 

I hope you will help to support our work to strengthen bonds between incarcerated parents and their children by contributing to SICT. Gifts can be made via the donate tab on our website.

Sincerely,

Marsha Chamberlin

President, Staying In Closer Touch