Getting Out & Staying Out:
A Guide to San Francisco Resources for People Leaving Jails and Prisons
The Access to Resources Working Group, a collaborative effort between the San Francisco's Safe Communities Re-entry Council and the SF Reentry Council, has published the the first edition of "Getting Out & Staying Out: A Guide to San Francisco Resources for People Leaving Jails and Prisons." They distributed over 500 Guides at the 2nd Annual Reentry Summit, and have already received requests for over 700 more copies. They are printing more copies within the week, and are developing a distribution plan that will reach people currently incarcerated in adult jails and prisons across the state and beyond who will be returning to San Francisco, as well as formerly incarcerated people living in San Francisco.

The Resource Guide is now available in PDF format for downloading at www.sfpublicdefender.org/scrc. If you are able to make the PDF version of the Resource Guide available on your website, please email
jessica.flintoft@sfgov.org or call (415) 553-1593. We would like to post the Guide on as many websites as possible to make the Guide as widely available as possible. If you have not already requested hard copies of the Guide, and would like to have copies to distribute to people inside jails and prisons, through probation or parole, at community- and faith-based organizations, and other key places, please email jessica.flintoft@sfgov.org or lauren.bell@sfgov.org.

Keeping Children Safe – A New Publication
SFCIPP partner the California Research Bureau has published Keeping Children Safe When Their Parents Are Arrested: Local Approaches that Work, by Ginny Puddefoot, MPH, MPP, and Lisa K. Foster, MSW, MPA. For a downloadable pdf, click here.

What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then
We’re often asked how many children in in the child welfare system have parents incarcerated?  In California, we don’t know for sure but this new research sheds light on this important question.

The Center for Social Policy and Research at the Jane Addams College of Social Work has just published a new report on children who come in contact with the child welfare system that have parents who are involved with the criminal justice system. The report is called What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then. You can download a pdf version of the report here.

Youth with Parents in Prison Help Each Other
Bay Area teenagers demonstrate that age is no barrier to making a difference

Project WHAT!, a program of the nonprofit organization, Community Works, recently released its new Resource Guide for Teens with a Parent in Prison or Jail. WHAT! stands for “We’re Here and Talking: 2.4 Million of Us,” which is roughly the number of children in the nation who currently have a parent in prison or jail. The 56-page guide answers common questions that children have when a parent is incarcerated. It has an entire section that explains complex jail and prison visiting procedures in plain language. It also includes compelling stories written by children who themselves have dealt with a parent’s incarceration, along with a CD of the stories read aloud. The Project WHAT! team states, “We made this guide because we know that having a parent locked up is not easy. We want to express the voices of youth who are often silenced…As youth who have all had one or both of our parents locked up, we believe you can get through this.”

This is a powerful message coming from a group of youth who are often stigmatized by their parents’ history. One young woman who was interviewed by the Project WHAT! team says, “I’m scared to say that my mom’s in prison because I wouldn’t want people to look at me differently just because of who my mom is. Because that’s not who I intend to be.” At the time of the interview, the 16-year old was earning a 4.0 GPA in high school, and viewed herself as the primary caretaker for her younger siblings.
Anthony—one of the five youth who make up the project team—sees a positive side to what he and his peers have gone through. He says, “Struggles really make you stronger.” He should know. His father was in and out of jail during his childhood and, like many single parents, his mother struggled to raise him and his siblings in Oakland, CA. They were homeless at one point. Eventually, seeking a father figure, Anthony went to live with a paralyzed cousin. Ironically, he was the one who served as his cousin’s caretaker, washing clothes, cooking, shopping—and learning to clean his cousin’s bedsores—all while taking independent studies in order to earn his high school diploma. In addition to working for Project WHAT!, Anthony is currently taking college coursework at Cal State Hayward and holds another job.

Project WHAT! was launched in 2006 by Community Works. The program’s goals are multi-faceted. Program Director, Anna Wong, says, “We aim to provide meaningful work experience and support to individual project members. At the same time, our larger vision is to raise awareness of the impact that parental incarceration has on children and to improve services to these youth.”  Community Works is making this happen by creating opportunities for youth who have had a parent incarcerated to speak out and make their voices heard—and paying them for their time and expertise. In addition to producing the resource guide, Project WHAT! makes presentations and offers youth-led trainings to teachers, social workers, foster parents, mentors, and others who work with children and youth. The interactive, practical trainings focus on how adults can best support children who are facing a parent’s incarceration.

To order copies of the Resource Guide, to set up a youth-led training for your organization, or to get more information about Project WHAT! or Community Works, visit www.community-works-ca.org, call 510-486-2340, or email Anna Wong, Project WHAT! Program Director, at anna.g.wong@gmail.com. People can download the guide free from our website: www.community-works-ca.org/programs/projectwhat.html

More on Project WHAT:

Imprisoned parents create tough times for their children
Coalition holds workshop for Bay Area youth
By Andrea Wolf / Times-Herald correspondent
Article Launched: 03/28/2007 06:51:26 AM PDT

Francine Lucas remembers having a mink coat and diamond earrings before she could walk, stuffed animals full of money instead of cotton, and cash shoved in every wall and crevice of her parent's home. 

She also remembers being two years old, ripped from her father's arms and thrown on the floor by police as they arrested her father for drug trafficking. 

"The police were so focused on getting their target, I don't think they even saw me," Lucas said. "I am lucky I wasn't trampled and crushed under the violent commotion." 

Seven years later, the horror of having guns pointed at her was revisited when FBI. agents arrested her mother in front of her at a Las Vegas hotel and she was sent on a plane, alone, to Puerto Rico to live with her grandparents. 

Lucas shared her story at the California Maritime Academy on Tuesday at a workshop about children of incarcerated parents sponsored by the Greater Bay Area Abuse Prevention Council Coalition. 

Lucas' story is not isolated. Currently, there are about 2.4 million U.S. children with one or both parents behind bars. One in 10 children have a parent under criminal justice supervision, which includes prison, parole and probation. These children often are over-looked during and after their parents are arrested. 

Nell Bernstein, journalist and author of All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated, has heard numerous stories like Lucas'. Some children arrive home from school to find their parents gone and no one notified to take care of them. 

"Kids have a feeling of incarceration themselves when parents are arrested and they should not be an exception because their parents broke one of our laws," Bernstein said. "I really see this as the children's issue of this generation." 

Bernstein, in collaboration with the San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership, has written a bill of rights that she hopes will help Bay Area agencies develop a plan to protect children with jailed parents. 

"We have been working with city and state agencies to try and develop some protocol for police and social workers to make sure these children are being cared for properly," Bernstein said. 
She said that other counties in California need to catch up. 

Bernstein said child service organizations and law enforcement are working in Vallejo and Solano County, on this issue. 

Anna Wong, a member of Project WHAT!, a youth-led initiative based in Berkeley, said her organization aims to increase awareness and improve services for children with incarcerated parents. 

Project WHAT! has assembled a team of young people who have had parents in jail to create curriculum for social workers and teachers. The team is also creating a resource guide for Bay Area teens under similar circumstances. 

Louis, a 15-year-old member of Project WHAT!, said that teacher training is important. His father went to jail when he was 7, and was in and out of prison throughout his childhood. 

"All the teacher sees is that a kid is acting up," Louis said. "If they had just asked me, one on one, if there was something going on at home, maybe I would have shared with them what was going on and not felt like no one acknowledged my existence." 

Dr. Denise Johnston, founding director of the Center for Children of the Incarcerated in Pasadena, said that research on this subject on the past has missed some major points. 

"To date, we have operated research as adult-centric, without even talking to the children," Johnston said. "This results in a lot of false information." 

A shift to a developmental, child-oriented approach with regular assessments for all children is needed, and necessary to help children cope with a parent in prison, Johnston said. 

"We have missed the ball on children of prisoners because we have missed the ball on children," Johnston said.

Children who are left out
Sons, daughters of the imprisoned are often ignored
By Julie Kay / Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/28/2007 06:20:12 AM PDT

On the day his father was supposed to come home from prison, young Luis dressed up in his best clothes. The San Francisco 15-year-old, who asked that his last name not be used, still vividly remembers waiting at the window for hours, "like a dog waiting for his master," he said Tuesday.
His father never arrived.

"Sometimes I think it's just a bad dream," said Luis, speaking Tuesday at a conference in Vallejo on children of incarcerated parents. "I call that dream my life."

The conference at which Luis spoke was presented by the Greater Bay Area Child Abuse Prevention Council Coalition and held at the California Maritime Academy. More than 250 people from the Bay Area and beyond attended.

Christina Arrostuto, the executive director of the First 5 Solano Children and Families Commission, was among many Solano County children's advocates in attendance.

"There are two prisons in Solano County so this is an issue that's going to have a significant impact in our county," she said.

Speakers at the day-long event included Denise Johnston, the founding director of the Pasadena-based Center for Children of the Incarcerated and award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein. Youth panel members from the Berkeley-based Project WHAT! - including Luis - also took the stage.

WHAT! stands for "We're here and talking: 2.4 million of us."

That number is a rough estimate of the number of children nationwide with a parent currently in prison or jail. Despite the alarming number, many of those children go without appropriate services, and research on them has been piecemeal, said speakers.

Luis described retreating as a child into his own world, unnoticed by peers and teachers except for when he acted out. "They think I'm doing bad, or they don't think I exist," he said.

Falling through the cracks is a common experience for children of incarcerated parents, said Bernstein.
"A child who is unseen when a parent is arrested, who is unheard when a judge sentences her parent gets a pretty clear message that her needs and her family connections are not as important as others,'" Bernstein said.

Bernstein, who published the book "All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated," has worked to promote a "Bill of Rights" for children of incarcerated parents, but noted that the concept remains only an ideal.

Without clear regulation, many children watch their parents taken to prison, or even come home after school to find a parent gone. Their abilities to speak, see, or touch their parents while those parents are in prison are often extremely limited.

"We need to send a different message to children," said Bernstein. "Which we can only do by reflecting a different reality."

Julie Kay can be reached at schools@thereporter.com.

Caring for state's foster children; State supreme court justice addresses conference of California Mental Health Advocates for Children and Youth
Date: Thursday, May 17, 2007
Source: Monterey County Herald (California)
Author:Claudia Meléndez Salinas

California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno is an expert in foster care issues in more ways than one.

As the chairman of the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care since March 2006, Moreno has been at the helm of a group that's trying to revamp a troublesome system supposed to help children at risk.

And as a foster care father, he's experienced first hand what that system is all about.

"It's given me tremendous insight," Moreno said Wednesday, a couple of hours before addressing participants at the annual conference of the California Mental Health Advocates for Children and Youth.

"I've been a judge for 20 years, and I often have difficulty learning the rules and procedures. There's a lot of lack of communication, and I'm pretty good at (communicating). It's taught me to be more humble and consider the problems youth have to go through (in the system)."

For the last seven years, Moreno and his wife have taken care of his wife's autistic niece, who also suffers from developmental delays. She was taken from her mother's home in New Jersey at age 5. Now 12, the girl still can't talk.

There are 80,000 children in foster care in California, and many of these children, like Moreno's foster daughter, suffer from mental health problems.

This weekend, more than 600 social workers, psychologists, youth advocates and other mental health care providers will share experiences about helping patients at their annual conference at Asilomar.
And after the passage in November 2004 of the Mental Health Services Act, there is more money for services, and a greater need to share with colleagues insights into what works and what doesn't, said Dave Neilsen with the California Department of Mental Health.

"Counties are implementing more programs for new people, and it's exciting," he said.

Moreno described the role of the California Blue Ribbon Commission in Foster Care during his keynote speech Wednesday. The commission was formed at the recommendation of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, which pinpointed major problems in foster care. California's group is still in the data-gathering process and will issue its recommendations next year.

"We've been learning about funding problems, the youth who are aging in the system (or) medicating," Moreno said.

The commission is focusing on three areas of reform: the role of the courts, collaboration among agencies, and funding.

Federal money to sustain the foster care system is largely focused on keeping children and youngsters in it, but there's little to no money for prevention or reunification, Moreno said.

In June, the 42-member commission is scheduled to visit the California Institution for Women in Riverside County to interview the inmates and come up with recommendations that address the problem from their perspective, the judge said.

"Many people in prison were not only foster children, but their kids now are in foster care," he said.
The commission is expected to offer its recommendations in March, and its participants are hopeful, said Christopher Wu, supervising attorney for the Center for Families Children and the Courts.

"The people are participating so enthusiastically," he said. "They're dedicated to offering politically viable solutions. They plan to have an implementation plan. There's a special focus by this commission on the courts: children don't go in or out of foster care without an order from a judge."

Foster care commission meets in Riverside
Date: Thursday, June 21, 2007
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune (California)

RIVERSIDE – A state commission appointed to identify ways the courts and child welfare agencies can improve service to California's estimated 80,000 foster care children will meet Wednesday for the first in a series of two-day meetings.

The California Blue Ribbon Commission on Foster Care is holding its sixth quarterly meeting in Riverside, with plans to confer with local judges, talk with members of the county's Department of Public Social Services and tour a women's prison, according to officials.

An opening night dinner is scheduled Wednesday night around 6:30 at the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa. The scheduled guest speaker is Riverside Superior Court Judge Becky Dugan.

The commission, appointed in March 2006 by state Chief Justice Ronald M. George, is halfway through its work and currently in a phase focusing on how to keep foster care youth from becoming long-term wards of the state, or slipping into a life of crime, according to Joni Pitcl, a commission spokeswoman.

She said one in five foster youth end up behind bars.

The commission will look at whether expediting the process of reuniting youngsters in the foster care system with mothers who have spent time in prison might prevent the unraveling of family bonds, Pitcl said.

“When appropriate, reunifying mothers with their children is best for the children and avoids their remaining in long-term foster care at significant cost to the state,” Pitcl said.

There is a planned visit Thursday to the California Institution for Women in Corona, where commissioners will see how the institution handles visitation between incarcerated mothers and their kids, according to Pitcl.

Tonight the 42-member commission will hear from Riverside County Department of Social Services officials who will explain how the county coordinates with local Native American tribes in making sure some 1,000 Indian children in foster care don't get caught in jurisdictional disputes.

“The county has really developed some innovative techniques the commission wants to learn more about,” Pitcl said.

In a statement released this week, State Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno, who chairs the commission, called the county's approach “pioneering.”

Project Avary helps children whose parents are in prison
Source:Beth Ashley
Article Launched: 06/25/2007 12:30:24 AM PDT

Zoevina Delgado sits with two of her children, 12-year-old D.J. Tompkins and Giovanni Delgado, 9 months, at the offices of Project Avary in San Rafael where Delgado works. Delgado's childrean, including daughter, Castanya Tompkins have benefited from the center's services.

For a child, having a parent in prison can be isolating, emotionally draining, psychologically destructive.
Project Avary in San Rafael was launched nine years ago to deal with those problems.

Housed in a small cottage on Grand Avenue, Project Avary was the brainchild of Danny Rifkin of Bolinas, a former business manager for the Grateful Dead. After the death of Jerry Garcia, he was looking for challenges outside the music business and followed the suggestion of his friend Earl Smith, then-chaplain at San Quentin State Prison.

The system, Smith said, provides for the men and women who are incarcerated and has support programs for their spouses, but no one watches out for the children.

Rifkin launched Project Avary, which in its first year provided a week-long summer camp for 8-to-11-year-old "children of incarcerated parents."

Since 1999, that one-week camp has expanded. From it came a number of other programs, including once-a-month "adventure days" for kids as well as leadership training for teen-agers who have graduated from camp.

The goal is to support and enrich the lives of children who might otherwise be at risk. Smith noted that in his years at San Quentin, he has seen families pass through the prison gates: grandfathers, fathers, sons.

"This is a population that had gone unaddressed, unassisted, forever," says Herb Castillo of Sebastopol, executive director of Avary. He succeeded Rifkin, who retired in October.
Now, "for many of these kids, we are the most important, most consistent thing in their lives," says program director Maria Schell.
The project "makes people feel better," says D.J. Tompkins, a Marin boy who participates in the program.
The project currently serves 150 Bay Area youngsters, 30 of whom live in Marin. Fifty are teens who sought to stay with the project after they were too old for camp.

D.J., a 12-year-old middle school student from Terra Linda, will be in camp for the fourth time this year; his sister Castanya, 10, went for the first time last year. "I'm really looking forward to it," D.J. said. "I get to meet new people and get to do new things. We do sports. They teach martial arts, which I like."

The camps, on property near Boonville in Mendocino County, emphasize music and art and environmental education, says Castillo. "We also put a strong emphasis on respect and self respect and conflict resolution."

Many kids in the program live in a constant state of upheaval, he says. "They see displays of violence and anger and internalize it. In dealing with other kids and adults, they tend to strike out."

According to the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents in Eagle Rock, between 170,000 and 200,000 children in California have at least one parent in prison.

D.J.'s father spent years in state prison, according to his mother, Zoevina Delgado; four years ago, she spent seven months in Marin County Jail. During her incarceration, her mother found Project Avary and enrolled the children. Delgado is grateful.

"It was great for my kids to be involved with children who had the same issues as they have." Today, both youngsters participate in the monthly adventure outings: "They love seeing their friends from camp. Project Avary is just like a family."

"A huge thing we do," says Schell, "is to connect these kids to each other. A major factor for them is isolation. They think they're the only kid" with a parent in prison.
Now employed in the Project Avary office, Delgado says her son "can hardly wait to go back to camp," which begins July 1. "The male counselors are positive role models and have had a big impact on my kids."

Schell says some of the children it serves are "not easy," but the work offers heartwarmng rewards.
"I love these kids, I really do. They call me all the time. They have so many layers of guilt and shame and anger, and they don't have any other place to talk about their feelings."
Three years ago, Project Avary launched a mentoring program linking kids with adult volunteers.
That program is struggling, but eight children are matched and making progress, Castillo says. Both of Delgado's children have adult mentors whom they see once a week. "Mine has helped me a lot," D.J. said.

Other programs are flourishing, including the "adventure days," which include mountain biking, visits to Slide Ranch, an art project at Drake High School, and swim sessions at the YMCA. Special adventure trips - rafting, backpacking, horseback riding - are held for teens.

Those trips give the kids a chance to discuss their problems with Castillo and Schell. "They're really open," Schell says. "They move to emotional things very quickly. 'I had sex with this boy because I was afraid he wouldn't like me if I didn't,' and 'I see my mom popping pills and I don't know what to do about it.'"

The leadership program helps teens develop as decision-makers. "These kids have a lot of decisions made for them, by the courts, by social workers," says Schell. "We try to empower them to think for themselves."

Project Avary also teaches simple living skills - how to use money, how to prepare for a job. "It isn't rocket science," says Castillo. "A lot of it is common sense, helping the kids sort through their options."

When Project Avary started, it was the only program in the country to deal specifically with children of the incarcerated. "Now there are maybe two others," says Castillo.

Avary is paid for by federal Department of Justice grants, a "very healthy amount of foundation money," including a grant from the Grateful Dead's Rex Foundation, and individual donations, Castillo says. The organization's annual budget is $550,000.

"At the moment, we are struggling with how big we are going to become. Every year, more kids want to stay on. We have 25 to 30 new kids every year at summer camp," he said.

Avary is an acronym for Alternative Ventures for At-Risk Youth. "That was useful for funders," says Schell, "but it wasn't useful for kids, who often felt they were doomed, with no options, and labelling them as at-risk contributed to that.

"Now we use Avary as a last name, a name for a community.

"Now, when the kids say Avary, they're talking about their family."

San Francisco Chronicle covers SFCIPP-developed police protocol:

Just home from school, the 11-year-old San Francisco boy found his mother passed out in their Ocean View house. Also home was his 2-year-old sister.

The boy hurried back to school and told officials. The principal called 911 and accompanied the youth home.

Police officers arranged for the boy's mother to be taken to the hospital to sober up, then asked the child if he had any family members nearby. The boy replied yes, but he wasn't sure of the relative's whereabouts.

Ultimately, officers left the boy and his little sister at a barbershop across the street from their home.

The incident last year ... read the entire article here

Project WHAT member Zoe Willmott recognized as "Youth Warrior"

Zoe Willmott of Community Works Project WHAT (We're Here and Talking, all 2.4 million of us), a group of teenagers who have experienced parental incarceration and are now developing  a training curriculum for professionals whose work affects those children, is a recipient of the First Annual Youth Warrior Award from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families. The mayor and DCYF write:

"Congratulations! Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Department of Children Youth and Their Families are honored to notify you that you have been selected as a recipient for the First Annual Youth Warrior Award. Based on your amazing work and commitment to bettering yourself and your community, you were nominated by an adult ally who admires your strength and resolve. After many hours of difficult decision making you were chosen, along with 15 other amazing young people, to be honored at the Youth Empowerment Conference on Saturday, January 20th 2007. San Francisco is a better and healthier place to be because of you and your efforts." 

Center for Young Women's Development publishes My Life Chose Me

The Young Women's Organizing Project of the Center for Young Women's development has published "My Life Chose Me," a resource guide and advocacy tool for young mothers dealing with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. It will available from their website (www.cywd.org) shortly; for information about how to obtain a hard copy of the guide, contact Sophia Sanchez.

SFCIPP COORDINATOR RELEASES BOOK, "ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD: CHILDREN OF THE INCARCERATED"
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SF SUPERVISORS PASS BILL OF RIGHTS RESOLUTION
On July 26, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a first-in-the-nation resolution endorsing the bill of rights for children of incarcerated parents and urging San Francisco agencies to work together to implement it.
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INCARCERATED YOUNG MOTHERS BILL OF RIGHTS SCORES A VICTORY
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