PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

IN THE NEWS
Special Campus visit for Children with Incarcerated Parents or Children in Foster Care with Incarcerated Parents or Returning Parents

     (501) 366-3647   www.arkansasvoices.org
 Middle School and High School Students with an Incarcerated Parent or a Parent Returning from Prison
You are invited to participate in a
A Service Learning Project of the University of Central Arkansas Criminal Justice Department
                (in collaboration with the non-profit, Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind)
This project includes a Special College Campus Visit with UCA Students and Picnic to Follow
On Saturday, April 22, 2017
*Meet at War Memorial Stadium parking lot in Little Rock, AR at 9:00 a.m.
Information about supplemental, post-secondary educational scholarships
from Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind will be shared at the event.
For more Information, contact Dee Ann Newell at (501) 366-3647 or deeannlr@yahoo.com
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Please give a completed form to your counselor.
NAME: __________________________ Parent or Guardian with whom you reside__________________________
Phone contact ____________________ Grade Level ____________ Attended support groups? Yes ___ No __

ARKANSAS VOICES for THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND/27th Anniversary Message

 From Dee Ann Newell, Founder and Director of Arkansas Voices, March 2017

As the founding executive director, I wrote this newsletter to reflect on our past achievements, to thank our numerous partners and to seek your continued support at the marking of our 10-year anniversary.  Arkansas Voices began serving children of incarcerated parents in 1994 and became a statewide nonprofit in 2002, offering services, training, advocacy and technical assistance for this vulnerable population.

Our Mission: To provide justice for children left behind as a result of parental incarceration or related reasons.


  We directly served over 200 families annually, each with an average of 3.1 children.

• We facilitated more than 4,500 Toll-Free WARM Line Calls within the state from relative caregivers, families of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated parents.
• We provided assistance to out-of-state phone calls from those who visited our website or found us through referrals from colleagues.
• We provided training and technical assistance to groups seeking to advocate or directly serve these families, both in-state and out-of-state.
• We established and supported an Arkansas Kinship Caregiver Network, a peer-led coalition which will continue to advocate for greater support from policymakers and funders.  The support groups that will become peer-led groups are located in northwest Arkansas, Garland, Craighead, Phillips, Jefferson, and Pulaski counties.
• We collected the only extant data on this population within Arkansas which was shared in legislative committee hearings over recent years. 

With the loss of the DWS funding, Arkansas Voices has undergone a major restructuring.   We have conducted without funding for the past ten years, e.g., parenting classes at the jail, after release, and individual and co-parenting classes for criminal-justice involved parents or those parents leaving the Forensic Unit of our state hospital, school-based groups, and family re-entry services, along with the TA, advocacy and training which was funded but is no longer.  Ironically, while we face a dramatic downturn in funding, there has been a marked increase in the number of calls from families, both in-state and outside of the state, and the number of our website visitors has increased by 630%.

CALLING FOR HELP TO OUR NEW AND OLD FRIENDS

Before Arkansas Voices for Children Left Behind became a non-profit organization in 2002, we were a 32-member coalition, each one dedicated in some way to serving the children and their incarcerated parent and their caregivers.  Given the end of our state funding, we need to return to our previous structure and must rely on private donations to continue this important work. EVERY donation matters and the funds will help us to sustain our mission.   You can reach us at Arkansas Voices, 1818 North Taylor, #140, Little Rock, AR 72207 or call Dee Ann Newell at 501-366-3647.

LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS

Arkansas Voices is always seeking volunteers for a variety of purposes, but primarily to help with our support groups for the children and their relative caregivers and in our parenting program, now 19 years old, held at the Pulaski County Jail one time per week for one hour. (NOTE: No one with a criminal record can volunteer in the jail.  This is the only program of our organization where formerly incarcerated cannot volunteer).   We also need more trained volunteers to help with our WARM Line, where we can roll over the phone at our office to your home, so your volunteer work is right at home.


 

SIXTH GRANDPARENT GATHERING HELD IN LITTLE ROCK

According to expert testimony at the state legislature, it is estimated that relative caregivers saved Arkansas over $38 million dollars in foster care savings, and that about 62,000 children in Arkansas are cared for in grandparent households outside of the child welfare system.  This figure represents about 10% of Arkansas’ child population.

Arkansas Voices held its sixth (2005, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2014, 2016) statewide gathering of grandparent and relative caregivers. This popular event provided caregivers with an opportunity to ask questions from experts and policymakers, as well as network with their peers.  
information on the loss and grief reactions that the grandchildren face when they have lost their parents to the criminal justice system, drugs, or mental illness.

MOTHERS IN PRISON, CHILDREN IN CRISIS - 23rd ANNUAL STATE CAPITOL EVENT

For the past 23 years on the Friday before Mother’s Day in May, Arkansas Voices and the earlier coalition that led its formation, has held a public awareness event at the State Capitol to bring attention to the plight of children whose mothers are incarcerated.  It began as part of a national public awareness campaign started by Justice Works in Brooklyn, and Arkansas Voices has continued hosting this event in Little Rock for the past 25 years. 

A  GUIDE FOR RELATIVE CAREGIVERS OF CHILDREN IN THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

In conjunction with the Administrative Office of the Courts, DHS/DCFS, and Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Arkansas Voices is pleased to announce a new handbook for grandparents and relatives with children in the foster care system.  The handbook will be on our website at www.arkansasvoices.org with hard copies available for mailing or distribution at our trainings.   Arkansas Voices also has a companion resource, A Guide for Relative Caregivers: What You Need to Know if A Parent is Arrested or Absent, available on our website and in hard copy.

UPCOMING ARKANSAS EVENTS

• ARKANSAS KINSHIP CAREGIVER NETWORK MEETING (Sept 2017, Little Rock).   Caregivers from around state are invited to help in the organizational development of this newly formed Arkansas Kinship Caregivers Network.  The Network will be a peer-led advocacy group.
• PRESS CONFERENCE FOR GRANDPARENT DAY (Sept 8, 2017, Little Rock State Capitol Rotunda at 11:00).  A press conference will be held to announce the Arkansas Kinship Caregivers Network and their new advocacy goals. 

• As a member of the Committee on Families and Communities at the National Re-Entry Resource Center, I am delighted with the recent FAQS the committee helped develop on Family Re-entry issues. The recognition of the important role of families in successful re-entry is underscored in this publication.  Here is the link: HTTP://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/communities-and-families#Q1
• I will continue my work as the coordinator of the National Policy Partnership for Children of the Incarcerated: A 14-State Coalition developed during my Senior Justice Fellowship in 2006-2008. The regional and statewide policy coalitions continue to share and interact with one another to maintain and expand the much-needed policy education and advocacy for these children and families at the national level. The regions and states involved are Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan, Connecticut, Illinois, Arizona, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

… LAST, BUT NOT LEAST - MANY THANKS TO OUR LONG-TIME PARTNERS

                We have had many, many supporters and volunteers over the past decade, including the following individuals and agencies (my apologies if I missed anyone):

• Our web-page provider, Aristotle (located in Little Rock, AR), generously donated their time to create and support our website. The website has become our primary vehicle for dissemination of resources during this critical period given our budget and staff reduction.(www.arkansasvoices.org)

• Our public/private partners include the Department of Human Services, both the divisions of County Operations and Children and Family Services; legislative champion, Vivian Flowers;  Arkansas Department of Community Correction; Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office and Jail; Arkansas Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention; Arkansas Advocates for Children  and Families; the National Corporation for Community Services for their 6 years of VISTA placements; the Catholic Diocese, Catholic Charities, ACLU of Arkansas, Arkansas Head Start Collaborative, the Interfaith Alliance, UAMS College of Public Health, the University of Central Arkansas Criminal Justice Department and many others, both nearby and in other states.
• Our foundation partners have included Open Society Foundation, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation for their original support and funding so that coalition could become a 501©3 non-profit in 2002 and their funding to conduct a needs assessment of the children of incarcerated mothers in 1994.  And most recently, we thank the Darragh Foundation for their grant to help sustain Arkansas Voices during our transition period.
• And most importantly, to our donors who are Friends of Children with Left Behind  who have steadfastly offered their generosity to sustain our services. We are truly honored by your support.
  

Finally, I would like to extend my special thanks to our board members, past and present, and the dedicated staff, serving around the state, and to those who preceded them in our earlier years, primarily kinship caregivers and formerly incarcerated parents whom I first met as members of my prison parenting classes.  My special thanks go to our fiscal manager, Glenn Nishimura of Arkansas Non-Profit Services, who has been a vital addition to Arkansas Voices, bringing us to full computerized grant and organizational management.