Talks between Extended Family and Alabama Department of Corrections began several months ago about the need for a brand-new program to take into Julia Tutwiler Prison to train incarcerated mothers. Extended Family has several programs that teach people of all ages character development, stress management, healthy relationships, and communication, but no one program that addressed the unique challenges of mothers who were trying to maintain relationships with their children from within prison.
Extended Family staff began to develop the framework for a new program that would be versatile enough to be relevant to inmate moms regardless of the relationship they currently had with their children, whether those interactions were regular in-person visits, less frequent phone calls, or limited to exchanging letters. Lessons were carefully crafted, drawing from lessons from Extended Family for Kids and our other programs, to develop a step-by-step guide on how to create or strengthen the foundational bond between the mothers and their children, and then to build on that foundation to be able to learn life skills that inmate moms could use immediately in their daily lives, and also share with their children during visits.
From all of this, Extended Family’s newest program, Extended Family for Life, was created, a series of fifteen lessons led over three days for incarcerated mothers at Tutwiler. The positive impact of this program was realized quickly as the moms would leave the class in the afternoons and test the skills they had just learned with others around them and in calls with their children. The reports back the following day were overwhelmingly positive. The small initial successes helped build their confidence to keep working on the things they were learning. As their confidence grew, they were excited to try the techniques in more situations.
One of the greatest results of the program was that these moms began to recognize the power they possess to create stronger, more positive relationships with those around them, especially their children. One Extended Family for Life participant commented that this program has the potential to change prison from the inside, a comment that condensed all of our goals in creating these lessons into one sentence! We are so grateful to have had this opportunity to positively change lives.
Partnership for this program was made possible by funding Alabama Department of Corrections received through Grant #15PJDP-21-GG-02757-COIP awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Extended Family for Life is a welcome addition to our programs and fits our “whole family” approach to breaking the cycle of incarceration in families. By working with all the individual members, we are helping those struggling with the effects of incarceration heal, one family at a time.
