News
Families Free has been BUSY...
We started our Community Return program in April, working with 10 women that are preparing to leave prison and return to this community in the next 6 months. This spring, we also formed a joint collaborative with two other agencies called the Community Impact Alliance. Through this partnership, we received credentials to provide contract services to families through the Department of Children's Services. The Community Impact Alliance is now the sole provider of in-home family support services is this region.
Due to many reasons, we have decided to discontinue our Connections program at Northeast Correctional Complex and the Johnson City Jail. If anyone is interested in restarting those programs, we would be happy to provide assistance!
Stay tuned for even more changes as we continue to grow in our ability to provide the needed services to these vulnerable families! We'd also love it if you find a way you'd like to get involved!
You can now support Families Free as you search the internet and shop online! GoodSearch.com is a Yahoo-power search engine that contributes about a penny per search and up to 37% of proceeds from purchases at several great stores! Go to http://www.GoodSearch.com and enter “Families Free” as your designated cause! Then…search and shop away! A few of the participating stores include Amazon, Target, Old Navy, Gap, iTunes, Apple Store, Dell, Best Buy, ebay, Home Depot, JCrew, Khols, Barnes & Noble, and more! For example, after designating Families Free as your charity of choice, click on the “iTunes” button on the GoodSearch website. For every purchase you subsequently make on your iTunes on your computer, 2.5% of that purchase will go toward Families Free! (Click here for a comprehensive list of stores!)
Families Free held Connections during the Easter weekend, which means we got to interact with several families and celebrate the season with them. Our room off the visitation gallery was full with 6 families milling in and out - 6 inmates, 6 caregivers, and 18 children! Many families were there to spend the Easter holiday together. I went up with a new friend, Beverly, who had never been to a prison visitation. She handled the extra-stringent precautionary measures the guards were taking (due to the large volume of visitors) with grace and patience! Knowing what to say or how to interact with the families may be a little challenging at first, but with time, the guards and prison uniforms fade to the background. What becomes evident is that there are several families of different backgrounds, different races, and different norms in the room; but, they value their time together and are making memories that could last a lifetime. Lisa and I extend a big thanks to all the volunteers that have come up to Northeast with us so far! We hope many more will come and be involved in providing this service for families of prisoners! ~melissa
After a slow start, the Families Free Connections room was full of families enjoying each other with our crafts materials, books, games, and puzzles! They were having such a good time that we stayed an hour longer than scheduled to make our room and materials available! The appreciation of the families - caregivers and inmates alike - is evident. When we must leave, they help us clean up the room. The caregivers clearly enjoy the activities we provide and the opportunity to share their stories. It is a joy to see the families playing together. The fathers make good use of our room and materials - showing their kids how to make things at our craft table…or reading a book to their babies…while joking about how their 13 year old daughter will never be allowed to have a boyfriend! The NECX prison has provided a cabinet for the Connections room where we can store our materials safely at the prison! We are very grateful for their support of our program and provisions to make our activities a little easier! We look forward to being back this weekend! Let us know if you would like to come up with us on future dates!
Families Free has been very excited to be featured in articles in two area newspapers! The Johnson City Press published an article on our efforts through our Connections program on December 24, 2007. Read the article online by clicking here. Mountain City’s The Tomahawk printed a story on us on January 9, 2008, with an emphasis on our Connections program at the Northeast Correctional Complex located in Mountain City. Click here to read that article! We are so grateful for these fantastic articles and hope this will help in getting the word out about what Families Free would like to do! We are looking for volunteers to help facilitate Connections on a regular basis!
Families Free partnered with the Public Health Student Association at East Tennessee State University to provide three families in our community Christmas gifts and a Pot Luck Christmas Party! The public health students and faculty at ETSU did an amazing job collecting gifts and organizing a fun party for the families - complete with Santa and lots of great food! A huge thank-you goes out to all community, students, and faculty behind the event, particularly Jessica Ramey, Chantelle Vernon, Wyeth Lawson, and Dr. Mike Stoots for making this happen! Families Free thanks each one involved for partnering with us to serve these families! The One Day with God event at Northeast Correctional Complex on Dec. 8th was a wonderful opportunity to serve and minister to fathers inside the prison, their children, and the caregivers. The day was filled with fun, joy, and excitement as children got to spend a rare day with their dads. One volunteer stated that it was an amazing day - he had never seen children nor photographers ever allowed on the compound! However, it was a bittersweet day, as well, as the families faced and talked about many issues stemming from having a loved one in prison. Please be praying for the continued outcomes of this event! One Day with God is a program of Forgiven Ministry, started by Scottie Barnes in North Carolina. Check out the Forgiven Ministry website for more information!
