Since 2003, Extended Family has been teaching families of prisoners how to successfully adjust to a new way of life. We offer a free, solutions-based approach to the prison experience. Our website, www.extendedfamilyhelp.org, provides information on navigating life with an incarcerated family member with answers at your fingertips. Our online helpful hints and resources provide families with the type of support they need when they need it the most.
Adults who call our “One-to-One Networking Service,” 256-927-7997, talk to another family member of a prisoner who has experienced what they are going through. Most of those who call feel better simply sharing their story with someone else who understands.
Our children’s programs continue to grow, and we are reaching more children than ever before in both our Extended Family for Kids and Extended Leadership Academy Programs. Extended Family Staff members lead more than thirty groups per semester at schools and juvenile diversion programs in Cherokee, Etowah, DeKalb, and Calhoun counties. Extended Family for Kids Leader Training is provided to adults in communities throughout Alabama and in other communities across the country who are interested in helping children overcome the challenges of having a loved one incarcerated.
Extended Success for Life, our reentry program for prisoners nearing the end of their prison sentence and ready to become “returning citizens,” those returning to their families and communities after incarceration, is new for 2024. We are so excited to be able to help families in this unique way, guiding the returning citizen through his journey home, training him to “dream, learn, and live” successfully and without reoffending.
We welcome the opportunity to share more about what we do to strengthen individuals, families, and communities who are dealing with incarceration! Visit our website to request an Extended Family staff member to speak to your organization about bringing our programs to your community. We are always looking for new partners to help us fulfill our mission, “To offer help and inspire hope.”
We invite you to join us as we commemorate our twentieth anniversary at our Annual Celebration of Life, Saturday, March 2, 2024, in Centre, Alabama. Tickets are on sale now on our website. We hope to meet you there!