Family Program: Strengthening family relationships while incarcerated

The Change Companies is pleased to introduce the Family Program, a gender-responsive curriculum for incarcerated men and women. This series is designed to support participants in strengthening their family relationships while they are incarcerated and after returning to the community. 

In this curriculum, participants explore five topics for strengthening family relationships:

Changing Family Dynamics
Explore what family means to you, changes your family is experiencing today and strategies to strengthen your family relationships while you are apart.

Building a Healthy Partnership
Reflect on your experiences with partnership so far, consider what makes a partnership healthy and explore how you want to experience partnership in the future.

Connecting With Family
Think about how you and your family interact, strategies that can help you communicate effectively and which family members you want to connect with today.

Becoming a Caregiver
Explore family caregiving, consider common caregiving responsibilities and identify ways you may want to support a family member who needs extra care.

Parenting Skills in Prison and Beyond
Describe what parenting means to you and the ways you plan to support your children now and in the future.

There are five Interactive Journals designed for men and five Interactive Journals designed for women to explore these topics. Each Journal is available in English and Spanish.

The Family Program also includes:

• A Facilitator Guide for each Journal, packed with discussion questions, skill practice and suggested activities for participants to share with family members.
• A Family Resource Guide for participants’ family members, including tips for communicating, strategies for connecting in positive ways and ideas for strengthening their family relationships.
• A DVD with video sessions for each Journal topic, designed to be facilitated with family members in visiting rooms, over video calls or as separate group sessions. Each video includes interviews with returned citizens and their family members, and poses questions for program participants and family members to discuss together.
• Seven pamphlets to inform family members about ways to access community resources and maintain physical health. The pamphlets can be displayed in the visiting rooms of prisons and jails as a helpful community resource for family members of adults in custody.