Make a Difference in a Child's Life

Dear Community Member:

As holidays that celebrate our connections to family approach, perhaps you recall your parents reading to you as a child. A favorite story may come to mind, along with warm memories of the time you and your parent spent together.

Today many children, about 5 million nationally, cannot have that experience because they have a parent who is incarcerated. Not only are they missing the closeness of shared reading, they also do not receive the developmental benefits - vocabulary growth, learning about handling emotions, and the exposure to a wider world - that reading together provides.

Since its formation in 2022, Staying In Closer Touch (SICT) has helped incarcerated parents connect with their children through books. SICT works in two Washtenaw County facilities - Women’s Huron Valley Facility and Washtenaw County Jail - providing opportunities for parents to choose a book and be recorded reading it. The recording, the book, and a card made by the parent are then mailed to the child.

Incarcerated parents are grateful for the opportunity to read books they think their children will enjoy, perhaps books that they themselves loved as children. The recordings and books create a shared experience that is valued by both parent and child.

As programming in prisons has resumed with the lifting of pandemic restrictions, SICT has helped more than 350 parents at the Huron Valley facility connect with their children through reading. Prison staff and incarcerated parents are glad to have SICT providing regular programs again.

This work is possible because of contributions from people like you who recognize the importance of strong family ties for incarcerated parents and their children. A contribution of $125 enables SICT to purchase, record, and mail a book from a parent to a child every month for a year. $250 provides a year of support for parents and children in two families.

As Thanksgiving approaches, SICT is grateful for the financial support of individuals in our community and for the all-volunteer staff who work with incarcerated parents every week.

I hope you will join us in this work by contributing to SICT. Our website provides an easy way to do so.

Sincerely,

Marsha Chamberlin
President, Staying in Closer Touch