Upcoming Reading Rainbow Episode on Children Visiting
Imprisoned Parent Centers Around The Osborne Association's
FamilyWorks Program
The Osborne Association is pleased to announce that Reading
Rainbow -- the award winning children’s television
program on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) hosted by
LeVar Burton -- will again air its Visiting Day episode
on April 25, 2005 in the New York area. (Check local listings
for date and time in other areas.) The Reading Rainbow
episode, based on a book about a child visiting her father
in prison, centers around The Osborne Association's FamilyWorks
program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
Inspired by the book Visiting Day by Jacqueline Woodson
and narrated by Alfre Woodard, the program depicts a prison
visit by the Gooden Family, who participate in The Osborne
Association's FamilyWorks program.
Through extensive interviews and dialogue, both at The
Osborne Association's FamilyWorks Children's Visiting
Center at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and at the Gooden
home, family members share their experiences of having
an incarcerated parent.
The Gooden sons, Maleke and Malcolm, participate in The
Osborne Association's supportive services for children
in Brooklyn, New York. Last year Maleke accompanied Osborne’s
Executive Director, Elizabeth
Gaynes, to Sweden where Gaynes was nominated for the
World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of
the Child.
Companion materials for teachers and
families are available at
Teachers Guide
http://gpn.unl.edu/guides/rr/146.pdf
Family Activities
http://gpn.unl.edu/guides/rr/pa146.pdf
Background
Nearly 2 million minor children in America -- over two
percent of the nation's children -- have a parent who
is incarcerated in State or Federal prison or local jails.
FamilyWorks mends and strengthens the ties that are broken
when a father is incarcerated. FamilyWorks reduces the
trauma for children left behind through a comprehensive
prison-based parenting education program, child-oriented
visitng centers for incarcerated fathers and their families
at men's state prisons (Sing Sing and Woodbourne), and
community-based services for families affected by incarceration.
FamilyWorks' Children's Visiting Centers
at Sing Sing and Woodbourne Correctional Facilities have
hosted more than 6,000 visits for incarcerated fathers
and their children in a cozy and child-oriented setting
staffed by trained program participants, under the supervision
of FamilyWorks staff. Through a fatherhood education program
at these two prisons, as well as at Shawangunk Correctional
Facility, FamilyWorks teaches fathers to be responsible
and loving parents, both while they are behind bars and
when they return home. More than 150 incarcerated fathers
completed one of the 16-week basic or advanced parenting
courses offered by FamilyWorks last year.
In each prison, FamilyWorks also offers people in prison
and their families counseling on a wide range of family
matters, including planning for release and reentry. In
December 2000, FamilyWorks became truly inclusive with
the opening of a community-based Family Resource Center,
whose centerpiece is a toll-free hotline for prisoners'
families throughout New York State. Upon release, FamilyWorks
program graduates are eligible for all Osborne services,
including substance abuse treatment and post-release support
such as job placement and other employment services.
The Osborne Association one of the largest leading multi-service
criminal justice organizations in the United States, operates
programs in community sites, courts, prisons and jails
in New York State. Founded in 1931, Osborne works to transform
the lives of those who have come into conflict with the
law, as well as their families, through innovative, effective,
and replicable programs that serve the community by reducing
crime and its human and economic costs. Operating a broad
range of treatment, educational, and vocational services
for people involved in the adult criminal and juvenile
justice systems, Osborne serves 7,500 people annually,
which includes prisoners, former prisoners, their children,
and other family members.
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