U.S. Department of Justice: Second Chance Act – Strengthening Families and Children of Incarcerated Parents

This program will promote and expand services to children who have a parent who is incarcerated in a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional facility. Program activities include mentoring and comprehensive services that facilitate healthy and positive relationships between incarcerated individuals, their children, and caregivers. This program will implement positive developmental activities to address issues the child and the family may face, strategies to increase and enhance communication between child and parent, and transitional reentry services for parents who are released during the program.

This solicitation supports the development and delivery of services that foster family engagement between the incarcerated parent, child, and caregiver(s). Such services may include:

• Developing and/or delivering programs that enhance the life skills of children of incarcerated parents, such as mentoring, case management, counseling, youth coaching, and academic support
• Educating parents on the benefits of positive youth development activities for their children
• Supporting the incarcerated parent’s continued involvement in the lives of their minor children
• Providing services to facilitate communication between incarcerated parents and their children and caregiver, such as transportation to facilities, reading on tape, phone calls, emails, letters, and televisiting
• Working with facilities to implement policies that foster additional family engagement
• Facilitating peer-to-peer consultation and networking at facilities among inmates and their families to address problem solving and innovation through the exchange of information that addresses parenting and other issues
• Providing family-drive and youth-guided services that focus on enhancing the capacity of the families
• Providing comprehensive services to promote responsible civic and family engagement

The target population for this initiative is medium- to low-risk incarcerated individuals housed at a BOP facility and their minor children. BOP will take into account safety issues and other factors, as deemed appropriate, when determining if inmates are eligible to participate in this program. The children’s current caregiver/s must consent to the child’s participation in the program.

Amount: Two awards will be made of $500,000 each.

Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations (including faith-based, tribal, and community nonprofit organizations) with a demonstrable history of providing services to children of incarcerated parents and community-based reentry programming.

Link: http://www.ojjdp.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2015/SCACOIP.pdf

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