Aunt Mary's Storybook Project (AMSB)
The goal of Aunt Mary’s Storybook project is to provide parents with a positive way to reach out to their children while incarcerated. The project promotes a healthy relationship with a positive focus on literacy. It also encourages being connected as a family during difficult times. The specific objectives of the program are:

to provide the gift of a culturally- and age-appropriate book selected with the help of a volunteer
to facilitate the taping of the mother reading to her child/children
to encourage the sharing of a realistic hope for the reunion of the family
to allow the children to have the voice of their mother with them when they cannot be physically near
to encourage positive experiences with reading between the mother and her child/children.

How the program works:
Companions staff and trained volunteers bring into the jail or prison a selection of brand new books, along with tape recorders and audiotapes. They assist participating mothers in choosing an age-appropriate book for each of their children. Each of the mothers is then given an opportunity to record herself reading the books for her children, and if she wishes, she may end with a message of love to the children and thanks to the caregiver. The volunteer, on behalf of the mother, then sends the books and tapes to the children.

Since all of the books are gifts to children who many times have very few books, Companions provides only brand new ones. We provide a selection of award-winning titles and books that offer a diverse and wide-ranging look at many cultures. In this way, the mother can choose a book that fits her child’s experiences, fears, joys and family situations.

"When a mother goes to prison, usually it is her children who suffer most. ... Maternal imprisonment affects future generations because children’s psychological health and sense of family is severely damaged by the separation from their mothers."

Aunt Mary’s Storybook Project was started by Companions in 1993 as a Christmas project for the children of women incarcerated at Cook County Jail in Chicago. It has since become a year-round program and is also provided in conjunction with the parenting classes that are offered at several correctional facilities in Illinois. Due to its success, similar programs have been started in over 20 states.

Through Aunt Mary’s Storybook Project, you can make a difference by providing books that help both parent and child to learn and to grow together.

Family Stories Pilot Program
Throughout Illinois there are numerous organizations working to address issues and concerns associated with incarcerations. Recently, Companions Journeying Together has brought together service providers, researchers, theoreticians, community organizers, ex-offenders and their families to explore how we might serve the educational needs of children whose parents are incarcerated. Incarcerated parents and their children have some of the lowest educational levels in the country. Few if any educational programs are available in prison, and the children of incarcerated parents often have serious academic problems which further put them at risk for continued poverty. Children of prisoners need special attention within their communities in order to avoid behavioral and school problems, mental illness, substance abuse, and eventually, an increased likelihood that they themselves will be incarcerated.

The steering committee has developed a pilot program called Family Stories to promote children’s reading and communication with their parents in jail or prison. The aims of this program are: 1) to remind the children that they are important to their mother and to society; 2) to foster communication on an emotional level between the child and his/her mother; and 3) to introduce books into homes that often do not have books. An added benefit of such a program is that re-connecting incarcerated mothers and their children can lead to better outcomes for the inmates upon their re-entry into the community. A unique aspect of this program is that students from local universities are actively involved. The program is off to an excellent start and is serving as a model for a wide-scale, low-cost intervention.

How the program works:
The Family Stories initiative has begun with a group of 100 incarcerated women and sends age-appropriate storybooks on a monthly basis to each of their children under the age of fourteen. After attending an educational program about prisoners’ children, participating university students select and package books for the children based on the parent’s detailed registration form. The students also write personal notes to each child with information about their college. The packages include colorful stationery with structured letters for the child to fill in and send back to the parent and the student volunteer. Children receive certificates, prizes and other incentives when they send back book reports, drawings, and other acknowledgements that they have read the books.

Evaluation of the program:
Parents and prison administrators are asked to keep track of feedback letters, book reports, etc., that are received from the children. Additionally, after the mailing, caregivers of the children are invited to participate in a community gathering at a church or community center. This serves as a further evaluation of the pilot program.

Ongoing benefits of the program:
The students are encouraged to keep in touch with the children and, in many cases, they are able to engage in a mentoring relationship.
The community gatherings may help reduce stigma as children meet others in their situation.
This project creates an excitement about receiving and reading books while reinforcing the bonds between parents and children.
As multiple studies such as the work of Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and others have shown, early childhood interventions are far more effective, over the course of a life span, than interventions later in life.
It is our hope that the educational services of these colleges and universities will be available to these formerly incarcerated women upon their release from prison.

Development background:
The incarcerated parents at Dwight Correctional Center led the way in the development of this program. Many of them know all too well that education is key to their success and the success of their children. While Aunt Mary’s Storybook project is well received, we simply are unable to get books to the many children who want them. After numerous discussions with the women, we came up with the Family Stories program. An advisory group of incarcerated women assisted in developing the parameters for participation and guidelines for our work with colleges and universities.

Support and Assistance:
The unique aspect of involving students from local universities is a special key to this program. We have enlisted service learning programs and professors at Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, Wright College, Elmhurst College, Concordia College and Chicago State University.

Likewise, we have the full support of the warden of Dwight Women’s Correctional Center and also support from Sheridan Men’s Correctional Center. We have a pledge for book support from Marion Arnold, Executive Director of Reading is Fundamental (RIF) in Metro Chicago, as well as the Director of Operations for Follett Publishers. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Thomas Lyons of the Great Cities Institute is assisting with the evaluation of the program, while Dean Creasier Finney Hairston of the Jane Addams College of Social Work, a nationally recognized authority on issues of incarcerated persons and their families, is serving as a consultant. Dr. Vince Alice, Executive Director of El Valor in Chicago, has offered the resources of his agency, which employs developmentally disabled persons, for packaging and mailing the books.

Fathers Read
For many years male prisoners have requested an opportunity to participate in Aunt Mary’s Storybook Project. They, too, value their relationships with their children and seek opportunities to be a part of their lives. The messages have a common theme: “Fathers need to have an opportunity to parent their children.” “Many fathers will be returning home to their children after incarceration.” “Children need their fathers to read to them and develop a love for literacy.” “Children who have functional fathers in their lives can encourage literacy.”

In 2003, we instituted Fathers Read at Sheridan, Illinois, the first substance-abuse rehabilitation prison in the nation. With the support of Program Warden Jordan-Luster and the leadership of a Companions staff member, the Rev. Dwayne Mason, we have served over 200 men. Fathers Read has been assisted tremendously by male volunteers from St. Sabina Faith community in Chicago, who travel monthly to help the men select and tape-record books for their children.

"This program has made a big difference for me; my kids can hear my voice and remember me. I think it will help us when I get back home next year, plus I love this story about the monkey’s jumping on the bed."
-- Andre, inmate at Sheridan

Mother Love Parenting Classes
Parenting classes are a requirement for many women who are seeking to regain custody of their children. Companions has studied the special needs of incarcerated women and their families and has designed parenting classes that address those needs. These 8-week classes are offered at two facilities year round for groups of 15-20 women at a time.

Our goals for these classes are twofold: 1) to help parents maintain healthy and positive communication with their families during incarceration, and 2) to help prepare them for the parenting responsibilities they will face after release. This communication is vital to women and has been proven to be instrumental in the recovery and rehabilitation of women who have been incarcerated. It is also beneficial for the children to maintain contact so that they do not feel totally abandoned.

Mother’s Day Project
Staying in touch can be an insurmountable problem, especially if you do not have sufficient money to purchase paper or stamps. Each Mother’s Day, Companions distributes packets containing good quality stationery, postage stamps, envelopes and pens or pencils to incarcerated women, enabling them to write to their children and mothers.

Three times a year, we issue and mail a newsletter to prisoners and to people in the free community concerned about those who are incarcerated and their families.

Pamper Yourself Kits
When a woman is released after completing her prison sentence, it benefits all of us if she is able to be constructive and establish a life for herself, and eventually, her family. It is especially important for the welfare of her children that she do just this. As a way of encouraging women who have been recently released to make positive steps, Companions provides them with a small “welcome home” gift. This is made possible through contributions of items and volunteer assistance to assemble the kits.

Correspondence
Knowing that someone outside the prison walls cares about you can make a huge difference in the life of someone who is incarcerated. Companions links individuals and groups who would like to correspond with prisoners. We also serve as a conduit for hundreds of cards that are mailed to prisoners each year. These cards are mailed for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and birthdays.