A Gift of Love and Literacy
E. Jane Handel
Massachusetts
How can one person make a difference? Two and a half years ago, I was determined to unravel this challenge. It was essential, I realized, to concentrate my efforts where the need was great and a single project could make a notable difference. I knew instantly that I wanted to pursue a project that involved books.
In eighth grade, along with a small group of friends, I worked on a project that involved sorting through books that were no longer needed at our middle school and shipping them to schools which could use them and incorporate them into their curriculums. The glow of satisfaction which surrounded us when the project was completed clung to me, and I craved a way to perpetuate this feeling.
As I started to brainstorm book projects that I could manage on my own, a friend of my family who had taught childbirth and parenting classes at the women's prison in Framingham mentioned the limited resources available there. I began to do research on incarcerated mothers separated from their children. I learned how children are said to "be doing time along with their mothers" because they are jostled from relative to relative or sent to foster homes, punished for a crime they did not commit. I began to think of the lasting bond between mother and child. Every night of my childhood, I remember reading with my mom, and I began to wonder what it would be like to be separated from my mom, and lacking the bond we shared over literature. How could mothers and children manage to maintain their bond if they are separated?
I was inspired by Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national nonprofit organization that enables children in low-income communities to select books to take home when they visit the hospital or health center. It occurred to me that if we could establish a place at the prison where mothers could select a brand new book to give to their child during the child's visit, I could not only help to maintain the bond between them, but help to increase the literacy for both mother and child. This would also enable the mother to give her child something to take away from each visit.
The MCI Framingham prison is the only state women's prison in Massachusetts. The prison happens to be fairly close to me, so by establishing a project there I would be connected to my own community. I also learned that there are approximately 600 women at MCI Framingham separated from their 1900 children. With the help of the family friend, I was able to contact the director of the Family Services Department at the prison. My project idea, A Book From Mom, was met with enthusiasm.
Now moving into its third year, A Book From Mom has truly begun to flourish and blossom. One unforeseen aspect of this project is that of increased communication. Mothers whose children live too far away to visit have started to mail books to their children—and children have been writing letters back. The communication by mail between mothers and their children has greatly improved as a result of A Book From Mom.
For the past two years, I have been supporting my project by running local book drives and have had incredible community support. Now, I hope to spread the program to other prisons, by identifying interested people or organizations in other communities, and by helping them start their own branch.
My hope is that I can touch the lives of as many incarcerated mothers and their children as possible, bringing literacy and a strengthened bond to many mother-child pairs.
To donate to A Book From Mom, send checks to Needham Cooperative Ban, 106 Great Plain Ave., Needham, MA 02492, or call 781-444-2100.
For More Info:
Reach Out and Read (ROR):
reachoutandread.org
The Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents:
e-ccip.org
Family and Corrections Network:
fcnetwork.org
The Justice Works Community:
justiceworks.org
Justice Works Community: Mothers in Prison:
justiceworks.org/factsheets
Sources:
soci.niu.edu,
advocatesforyouth.org,
"Doing Our Women in Prison—Incarcerated Black Women" Essence, March 1994.
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