Foreverfamily Programs in Metro Atlanta
For Everyone
Family Visitation. Our Family Visitation Program exemplifies the extended family of our organization and the family ties we strive to preserve. Most children in Atlanta with an incarcerated parent need to travel almost 100 miles to see them. Not surprisingly, this is the primary reason children don’t get to see their incarcerated parents with any regularity. We address this by providing regularly scheduled transportation for kids to see their parents. These trips often involve two-hour drives each way and four or more hours at the prison. They also require a significant amount of logistical support from our volunteers. Vans or buses must be secured. Children must be picked up and dropped off after the trips. Lunches and snacks need to be prepared and loaded. Children must be escorted into and out of the prison. And all the paperwork, including securing identification cards for each child, must be completed prior to visits.
The payoff for all this hard work comes in the form of embraces, the embraces between the children and their mother or father, sometimes for the first time in months or years. These visits, organized every other month, are always a gathering of love and support for the children, their parents, the caregivers who accompany them on the visit, and the volunteers who make the visit possible. As one of our children notably said during a recent visit, these “hugs need to last a long time.”
For Our Children
Teen Leadership. The Foreverfamily Teen Leadership program provides an empowering forum where our teenagers can discuss the issues they face, become engaged in their community and build leadership skills through community service and intergenerational mentoring.
For Our Parents
Parent Education. Parental rights and responsibilities can be daunting. Foreverfamily offers education, training and support services to help parents from the time of their incarceration to their transition back to society. In helping parents understand how their role can transcend the bounds of prison, Foreverfamily produces and supplies self-help manuals, facilitates quarterly workshops to help parents stay connected to their children, and holds parent-staff conferences— modeled after school-based parent-teacher conferences—to provide updates on their children’s progress.
Re-entry Assistance. For parents coming out of prison, our Foreverfamily program director, family advocate and volunteers provide support services, including assistance with finding appropriate clothing, understanding current social trends and coping with their readjustment to society
For Our Caregivers
Statewide Guardian Angels Support Group.
Caregivers are overworked and undervalued. Those charged with providing care for the children during the parent’s incarceration face many concerns. Foreverfamily helps to provide the support needed to successfully navigate this trying time through the Guardian Angels Support Group. The group meets 6 times a year in Cornelia, GA. At these meetings, caregivers share their concerns and interests, and receive help with parenting. Foreverfamily has also partnered with Georgia State University’s Project Healthy Grandparents which supports caregivers in metro Atlanta.
Referral and Information.
Foreverfamily is part of a network of nonprofits that support fragile families and routinely refers people to United Way’s 211. In addition to 211, families can also choose to work directly with our family advocate in securing the resources and assistance they need.
Recognition and Support. To honor caregivers, Foreverfamily arranges annual luncheons where they are celebrated and commended for their dedication and all they do for their families.
For Our Volunteers
Volunteer Enrichment. Foreverfamily depends on volunteers. They power everything we do, from preparing meals for our after-school programs to working one-on-one with our youth. At any given time, we have nearly 60 volunteers, drawn mainly from local colleges, working anywhere from five to 20 hours a week. But more than just give, we know our volunteers take away much from their time with Foreverfamily. We make sure they know we value their input; at the end of each event, we make certain all our volunteers have a chance to debrief and tell us what worked and what didn’t. We make a point of acknowledging their services at every opportunity. Above all, we provide training and enrichment programs for our volunteers to make sure they have as much an opportunity to grow as our children. Our application process can be completed online as can they volunteer training.
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