ABOUT VOICES

History of Arkansas Voices 

Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind, Inc., a statewide not-for-profit organization, 
began in 1994 as a grassroots coalition of 32 groups dedicated to building community 
awareness of the growing number of incarcerated mothers and their children, along with 
community organizing of grandparent and other relative caregivers throughout the state. 

In 1995, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation funded the pilot Project for Kinship Caregivers
and Children of Incarcerated Parents in Pulaski County, AR to collect data and evaluate the 
progress of participants in weekly caregiver support groups and therapeutic groups for the 
children and youth. Continued support from the Rockefeller Foundation enabled key members 
of the original grassroots coalition to become a 501(c) 3 organization in 2002 and provided 
for board training by Peter Breen, a Fellow of the national Child Welfare League of America, 
with the non-profit named Arkansas voices for the Children Left Behind (AV).

For over 15 years, the organization has remained the sole non-profit organization whose 
mission is to develop a full spectrum of flexible support services for children of incarcerated 
parents and parents who are otherwise criminal justice-involved, support for parents who 
are incarcerated or returning from incarceration, to maintain their relationships with their 
children, where appropriate, while offering trainings and technical assistance, along with 
public awareness events.

There is a scarcity of literature on successful interventions for children of incarcerated parents 
and their families. However, programs that appear to be the most promising are those that 
provide multiple intervention services and are flexible enough to account for the needs of 
individual families. The services offered by Arkansas Voices represent "promising practices," 
as implemented by other programs around the country. All have been evaluated by external 
evaluators, and the data analyses have been used to develop program components and 
facilitate decisions related to future programming.

  • Over time, Arkansas Voices has developed evidence-based interventions and holistic 
    services to help children heal after the trauma of separation from their parents, mold 
    kinship caregivers and the children in their care into strong, stable families, and intervene 
    in the cycle of intergenerational family problems associated with parental incarceration. 
    All services are tailored to the limitations, strengths, and assets within grandfamilies, 
    whose involvement in focus groups and participant evaluations have shaped our view 
    of how best to help these vulnerable families and which services and service delivery 
    produce the best outcomes.
  • Arkansas Voices has a long history of collaborations with other groups, community 
    stakeholders and networks. Many of the coalition members who were involved in forming 
    our organization continue now as collaborators and/or partners in the provision of services 
    to our clients.
  • Our faith-based partners are a source of both supportive volunteers and unique services. 
    We have received donations of child-care slots for the younger children with no tuition costs,
    and elementary education for a child of a caregiver who needed a more structured academic 
    setting following the turmoil that preceded placement with her grandmother. The role of the 
    Catholic Diocese has been especially valuable. Beyond the Catholic Bishop’s Campaign for 
    Human Development funding that they have provided for community organizing of kinship 
    caregivers, they consistently serve on our various advocacy coalitions. Other faith groups
    have served as a valuable resource for early childhood services for the caregivers. 
  • We engage ministerial groups and faith alliances in our Justice Week for Children Left Behind, 
    where ministers and faith leaders preach on the issues of children left behind, kinship caregivers, 
    and the 1,000 ways (both big and small) that congregants can serve these families.
  • Arkansas Voices is an affiliate of the National Resource Center for Children and  Families pf the Incarcerated at Rutgers University and the National 
    Policy Partnership for Children of Incarcerated Parents    , providing information to other entities 
    around the nation serving children of the incarcerated. We provide technical assistance and presentations at national conferences and convening of experts to help in policy and practice reforms, along with services to groups seeking to serve the children and families, including grant-writing and trainings.
  • Arkansas Voices is committed to improving the well-being and  stability of these children 
    and families. Our work is done with both joy and hard efforts, as the stigma and shame 
    endured by these children and families with the consequent isolation of these families is 
    an extremely difficult undertaking, given the prejudices and stereotyping of incarcerated parents.