Parenting From Behind Bars™

 

This is a character-based, educational, self-help, and support program developed in collaboration with various Department of Corrections staff, prior offenders, faith-based, community, local, state and federal agencies.

This curriculum is designed to assist incarcerated parents, both adult and juvenile, in developing skills to become more involved, responsible and supportive while incarcerated. The program is also designed so that incarcerated parents, once trained and certified, can facilitate the program and mentor other inmates and peers. 

The program is delivered in nine weekly sessions in a small group format. Within the structure of the nine week program, the primary focus is on the following issues: 

 

  • Understanding “self” and decision making 
  • Accepting the responsibilities of being incarcerated – rules and regulations
  • Promoting responsible parenting while incarcerated 
  • Empowering incarcerated parents to assume emotional, moral, spiritual, psychological responsibility for their children 
  • Understanding child support and taking financial responsibility for your children 
  • Positive relationships and the effects of both positive and negative communication
  • Effective and positive mentoring 
  • Transitioning back into the community, Re-Entry

 

Essential to the success of the program is recognizing that both fathers and mothers play a very important role in the positive growth of a child. Without a father figure to emulate, basic fathering skills such as self-discipline, nurturing and consistency are foreign concepts for most men in prison. 

Absent mothers are equally important. The work of mothering can have enormous benefits; the beneficiaries of this work are not only the mother and child, but families and society as well. Mothers are vitally important to the growth of their children. 

 Therefore, the challenge was to construct an effective curriculum that meets the needs of male and female, adult and juvenile populations in correctional institutions. To address this challenge, President Charles Stuart utilized his knowledge and experience gained during visits to many institutions across the United States and from hundreds of conversations with inmates and correctional staff, both male and female. He also enlisted the wisdom of many strong relationships he established working in this field over the years to assist in creating a curriculum that will make a difference and reduce recidivism among all offenders, and one that is "facilitator friendly". These relationships are with various individuals who are now, and have long been, on the “front lines” of the responsible fatherhood/parenting movement. 

 

 

 Curriculum Training

You can have the best written curriculum with all of the "bells and whistles" in the country, but if you are not trained by someone with the knowledge and experience then all you have is a "book". 

 

Facilitator Training

We can guarantee you, with your active participation, a training session that will be informative, fun and exciting. If our training is not where you wish to be, then this training is definitely not for you.

 

Must Have "Heart"

"To work with these parents and to be willing to do this work inside, "the walls" of a correctional institution. Understanding this is understanding what it will take to be the best facilitator you can possibly be, and to make that positive change in the life of an offender and his family."

Charles E. Stuart            

  

 

  

  

PFBB

Our training will be facilitated by trainers with experience in the correctional system.  We will not train by CD, DVD or web net.  We believe that effective, successful, and lasting training should have two important components:

  • Trainers with hands on experience in the correctional system.
  • One on one contact between trainers and trainees, is essential when sharing information in training people to work with the incarcerated population.

It's not about how many CD's or DVDs you sell or how convenient  that you can make this training, with NIPFN it's the quality of the training that makes us different.