Overview

The D.C. Family Literacy Project helps incarcerated parents develop the literacy of their children through enhancing their own literacy-building and parenting abilities. Parents learn new ideas in child development and family literacy -- such as reading to children, storytelling, expressive arts and crafts, -- and put them into practice during special family visits.
The Project is a collaboration among Georgetown University Law Center, the D.C. Public Library, and the D.C. Department of Corrections.

• Goals
• Rationale
• Benefits of the Program
• Approach to Teaching and Parenting
• Program Components
• Family Literacy Staff

Primary Goals of the D.C. Family Literacy Project:

• To engage participating parents in their children's learning, and to help them acquire the skills to better prepare their children for school.
• To provide incarcerated parents with an opportunity to spend meaningful literacy-building time with their children.
• To empower families to help themselves by fostering a sense of family accomplishment and togetherness, and to build parenting skills and family bonds that continue after the incarcerated parents are released.
• To effect change in the correctional system so that incarcerated parents have more frequent positive experiences with their children.
  

Rationale:

Nearly 70% of the residents of District correctional facilities have not completed high school. Most of the residents who have taken achievement tests have scored below the ninth grade level. Many of the residents and their non-incarcerated partners are not aware of or do not consistently engage in developmentally appropriate practices with their children which would promote literacy and love for learning.

    Children of incarcerated parents are at serious risk of diminished literacy. Studies have shown that children who spend little time with their parents in literacy-building activities have low literacy achievement, a factor that is aggravated by the incarceration of one or more parents.

    Part of the frustration of confinement of incarcerated parents is their sense that they are not capable of contributing to the growth of his or her child. The structure of visits is geared towards positive, literacy-building encounters between parent and child. This program gives the parent a much-needed opportunity to bond with his or her child in a setting surrounded by books, skits, arts, singing, and family interaction.

Benefits of the Program:

Although formal results from our evaluation are not yet completed, preliminary indications and anecdotal evidence show that the program is successful for participants in a number of areas:

1. Incarcerated parents, their partners, and their children develop knowledge, skill and motivation to engage in literacy activities. They show increased understanding of how to make literacy a part of their family activities, and also display behavior/attitudes that literacy activities are important and enjoyable. Participants' literacy skills improve, along with a desire for continued improvement.
2. The families themselves demonstrate an increase in cohesion and togetherness. There is better communication among family members, heightened respect, and an increase in cooperation. Family members talk with and listen to one another about important concerns, often centered on learning.
3. Incarcerated parents improve their demeanor while incarcerated and show expectations of building successful family and crime-free lives for themselves when they become released from incarceration.
4. Residents participating in the program report increases in self-confidence and a greater sense of efficacy in their lives.
5. Prison school officials have reported an increase in enrollment in GED and ABE program by those involved with the project.

    In her preliminary evaluation, the project evaluator, Dr. Elvira Lima, noted that: "The pilot reveals basically that three main events are occurring: the development of reading skills, the existence of a very positive interactional situation (inmate-children), which seems to improve parenting behaviors, and an increase in actual time spent on literacy related activities by the end of the program."

Approach to Teaching and Parenting:

The D.C. Family Literacy Project takes

1. a student-centered approach to teaching, and
2. a child-centered approach to parenting.

    Educational seminars are run as discussions centered on quality works of children's literature and relevant parenting issues.

    The teacher acts as facilitator and guide rather than as expert. Much of the class is devoted to participants working individually or in small groups, reading and discussing children's books, doing book-related activities, assessing their children's interests and needs, and planning for upcoming family visits.

    Classes are highly interactive, making use of what the participants' interests are and building upon them. Project staff first model various approaches to oral reading, discussion techniques and ways of bringing literature to life for children, and then help the participants to do the same with their own children.

    Activities are examined from the child's point of view whenever possible, using the belief that good parenting results from a willingness to look at the world through the child's perspectives. The curriculum is supplemented with articles from parenting journals and magazines, video resources, and other handouts as appropriate.

Program Components:

The program has been conducted for residents of the D.C. Department of Corrections who have children since October, 1991.

    Each year the program runs three instructional cycles that consists of two components: weekly two-hour educational seminars for the incarcerated parents and monthly interactive family workshops integrated with these seminars.

1. The Instructional Seminars

   The typical cycle runs ten to twelve weeks and serves 15 to 25 selected residents at the correctional facilities. A weekly instructional literacy-building/parenting seminar for the incarcerated parents centers on reading, sharing, and discussing children's literature. Parents prepare for family visits by reading and discussing these books and others from a standing collection. The seminar uses culturally diverse and topical children's literature to raise and discuss important issues of literacy building and parenting. The plan and prepare for upcoming family visits and practice literacy-building ideas that they will use in the family visits. Participants are trained to work with 1) pre-readers, 2) readers, or 3) teenagers, and plan the special group sessions.

2. The Interactive Family Visits

   After the first two or three weeks of the cycle, residents are ready and eager to participate in the interactive family workshops. During these workshops the residents' children and their non-incarcerated caregiver(s) come to the facility and participate in the program that has been planned by the residents. The workshops consist of two components. The first component is an hour of family time, where each family informally engages in a variety of literacy-building activities together. These activities include reading, doing puzzles, arts and crafts projects, and playing games together.

       During the second part of the family workshop, the children are divided into three groups, according to their age, and each resident works with one of the groups. The groups are: 1) infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who engage in "circle-time" activities planned by residents who have been trained to work with this age group; 2) children ages 6-12, who participate in the "P.J. Book club" program, coached by specially trained residents; and 3) teenagers, who participate in a rap session/ and book and article discussion group, also lead by specially trained residents. All children receive numerous new books to keep at each family workshop, some chosen by their parents, and others chosen by the children themselves. At the final workshop and graduation each child receives a special bookbag.

Evaluation and Feedback Session

Each program cycle begins with a pre-survey and post-survey evaluation and feedback session. Residents evaluate the program, their progress during the course of the cycle, and the impact the program has had on their children. The D.C. Family Literacy Project staff provides videotapes of earlier family visits for the residents to view as part of their evaluation.

Family Portfolio and Audiotapes

Samples of art and writing produced by each resident and his or her family and family photographs are collected throughout the course of the cycle. The residents and their families assemble a family portfolio to review and store their memories of the cycle. Residents record an audiotape for their child/children of themselves reading a book. At the end of the cycle the children receive the audiotape books, and a "walkman" recorder.

Community Outreach

In 2001, the D.C. Family Literacy Project has begun to provide tutoring and mentoring services to children involved with the project. A future goal is to provide the literacy project to the families of inmates who have been released into the community. This is in response to a strong demand by the incarcerated parents to continue in the program after they have been released.

Family Literacy Staff:

The program is directed by Professor Richard L. Roe of Georgetown University Law Center; the program coordinator is Sarah Amour.

    Assistance in instruction and expertise in children's literature is provided by librarians from the D.C. Public Library. Funding and support has been provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Southland Corporation, the Gannett Communities Fund, the Commission on National and Community Service, the Jessie Ball Dupont Fund, the Wiener Family Foundation, First Book, The Greater Washington Reading Council, the United Black Fund, the Federal Government, and the D.C. Public Schools under the Adult Education Act, the "Prime Time with P.J." Book Club program, the Fairy Godmother Bookstore (D.C.) and Chuck and Dave's Bookstore, (Takoma Park, MD).

Revised July 2, 2003 (ML)