“CLICC opened my son’s heart and improved his behavior” — CLICC mom

Dear Friend,

We’ve known for 10 years that CLICC literacy and mentoring for incarcerated parents and their children casts a wide net — with big results. This year, many others joined us in that assessment.

A four-year (2018-22) independent evaluation by IMRP, a public policy institute at the University of Connecticut, showed that children (ages 5-17) with parents in prison "experienced a reduction in emotional, behavioral, attentional, and relationship difficulties” during their year of meeting with a CLICC-trained child mentor. Examples of the difficulties included “fighting, being unhappy or depressed, problems staying still, and preferring to be alone instead of with their peers.” http://bit.ly/CLICC

The Connecticut Department of Children and Families gave CLICC its first-ever state agency contract to help parents in four prisons connect with their children and strengthen their relationships.

CLICC developed a pilot literacy program for parents of infants and toddlers at Manson Youth Institution, Connecticut’s prison for males under age 21, at Manson’s request. These young fathers are developing parenting skills and encouraging their children’s literacy by reading the classic stories they remember to their children during in-person and video visits. The dads also receive weekly coaching from their CLICC parent mentor.

Whether you donated important support early on, have given year after year, or are considering a first-time gift to CLICC, our small staff and wonderful Board of Directors, as well as the children and families we serve, thank you. CLICC literally could not have made the efforts needed to achieve these results without your interest and support.

Your gift to CLICC will help us capitalize on all we learned in this pivotal year.

The IMPR report concluded that results of the evaluation “are promising and support additional funding and evaluation of the CLICC mentoring model for (children of incarcerated parents.)" (We agree!) We need to step up development efforts and assemble a research team to plan for a larger research study of our evidence-based program for children, as well as their parents.

· Create a new position — director of mentoring — to deepen behavioral, emotional and literacy support. CLICC already meets or exceeds the highest technical standards for mentor recruitment, training, placement and oversight as set by MENTOR, the nation’s leading mentoring organization. The director of mentoring would step up family recruitment, improve mentor trainings, and provide more tools and individual support to mentors — all to better meet the unique needs of children of the incarcerated.

· Expand our pilot for parents of infants and toddlers to more prisons. CLICC has turned away dozens of incarcerated parents over the years because their children were too young to read. The pilot at Manson Youth is giving us the experience and tools we need to formalize the program and roll it out to more incarcerated parents and their families.

Research shows that children with parents in prison are at greater risk for developing emotional, behavioral and social difficulties that can impact their development and follow them into adulthood. But it also is true that family and other caring adults — like CLICC child mentors — can serve as buffers to ease these challenges and bolster a child’s physical/emotional health and self-confidence.

Robert, one of our CLICC dads, knows this first hand. He is reading and discussing books selected by his son during calls. This has helped the two of them navigate tough topics like adolescence, step-parents and family, and the choices that brought Robert to prison.

“Through reading, my son and I have opened doors that we did not know could be opened,” Robert said. “This led to discoveries that have sparked profound growth which, despite being separated by distance and time, has helped foster an amazing relationship that is built on a stronger foundation."

Through CLICC literacy and mentoring, hundreds of incarcerated parents and their children over the last 10 years have worked towards positive family connection, and better emotional and behavioral health — just like Robert and his son.

Here’s to the next 10 years — and more open doors. Please give to CLICC today by clicking on this link http://bit.ly/GIVE2CLICC or mailing a check to: CLICC Inc., 470 James St., Suite 7, New Haven, CT 06513.

Thank you!

Best wishes,

The Hon. Mary E. Sommer (ret.), chair of the CLICC Board of Directors

Joy L. Haenlein, executive director

November 2023

A 4-year independent evaluation showed children who enrolled in CLICC literacy and mentoring for incarcerated parents and their children experienced fewer problems like fighting, depression and social isolation.

The study was led by Dr. James Conway for the Institute of Municipal and Regional Policy, a nonpartisan public policy research organization at the University of Connecticut.

Specifically, the study found:

Children (ages 5-17) "experienced a reduction in emotional, behavioral, attentional, and relationship difficulties” during their year of CLICC mentoring; examples of the difficulties included “fighting, being unhappy or depressed, problems staying still, and preferring to be alone instead of with their peers.”

The report noted that the CLICC mentoring model “was explicitly designed to address parental incarceration and is different in important ways from the models represented by prior evaluation” ..and concluded that "results are promising and support additional funding and evaluation of the CLICC mentoring model for (children of incarcerated parents.)"

Great! Where does CLICC go from here?

We will use lessons from this study to: conduct a larger evaluation of the impact of CLCC on incarcerated parents and their children; deepen support for families, including child caregivers, and; adapt the CLICC model for use with more families and jurisdictions.

November 2023

An independent study, just released, shows children with parents in prison who enrolled in CLICC, the literacy and mentoring nonprofit for incarcerated parents and their children, experience fewer problems like fighting, depression and social isolation.

Dr. James Conway evaluated data (2018-2022) on the child experience with CLICC, submitted by the children and their caregivers, on behalf of the University of Connecticut’s Institute of Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP), a nonpartisan public policy research organization. The incarcerated parents were not part of the study.

The report said children "experienced a reduction in emotional, behavioral, attentional, and relationship difficulties” during their year of CLICC mentoring, and concluded that "results are promising and support additional funding and evaluation of the CLICC mentoring model for (children of incarcerated parents.)"

Some examples of the difficulties were “fighting, being unhappy or depressed, problems staying still, and preferring to be alone instead of with their peers.”

Mary Sommer, chair of the CLICC Board of Directors, said the nonprofit organization — now in its 10th year of service to parents in Connecticut prisons and their families — was pleased with the results, but not surprised.

“CLICC recognizes that some of the most important work toward reentry, for incarcerated people as well as their families, happens while the individual is still in prison,” she said.

“We knew anecdotally, from participant feedback, that CLICC was beneficial for children in our mentoring program,” she said. “This evaluation helps to confirm and flesh out benefits and point to next steps as CLICC continues to enhance services to children and families and grow.” Among the priorities are an evaluation to study the impact of CLICC participation on incarcerated parents and well as their children, deeper support for families, and adapting the CLICC model for more families and jurisdictions.

The problem: The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that nearly 1.5 million U.S. children had a parent incarcerated (2016); in Connecticut, the Annie E. Casey Foundation said that about 43,000 children had an incarcerated parent in 2018-19.

When the parent is removed from the home due to incarceration, children may lose social and financial support, and their risk increases for developing such mental health and behavioral problems as school attendance/acting out issues, and being stigmatized and shunned because of the incarceration at a time when family members may discourage them from talking about it.

Left unaddressed, these challenges and the accompanying toxic stress, shame and trauma can create lifelong physical health and behavioral problems that derail development and, in some cases, shorten the lifespan. However, support from family and other caring individuals — like a mentor — can be protective factors that shore up a child’s self-confidence and resilience and keep healthy development on track.

Background: How CLICC works CLICC uses reading books and trained mentors to increase communication and deepen relationships between incarcerated parents and their children. Its goal is to reduce parental recidivism and the feelings of shame, stigma and isolation children of the incarcerated can experience.

Children and their incarcerated parents read and communicate about books selected by the children — the parent reads in prison, and the child reads at home —giving them new and interesting things to talk about and an experience the two of them can share. Parent and child meet weekly with separate mentors to support the communication and help with their unique needs.

Founded in 2007 by the late Arthur White of Stamford, CLICC began as a program of the nonprofit Connecticut Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Its first pilot was conducted in 2009-2010 with mothers at the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury and their children. CLICC reshaped its program for Connecticut’s state prison system and, in 2014, began work with mothers and fathers at two prisons who had children in greater Bridgeport or greater New Haven.

CLICC became an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2020 and actively served families throughout the covid-19 pandemic, including several who participated in the study. Today, CLICC parent mentors meet weekly with groups of participating fathers at Carl Robinson, Osborn, Cybulski and Brooklyn correctional facilities, Manson Youth Institution, and with mothers at York Correctional Institution.

CLICC child mentors and their mentees meet one to one, every week, at a library, bookstore or community center that is convenient for them.

Most child mentors are recruited from colleges and universities, among them Yale University; University of Connecticut in Storrs and Hartford; community colleges in Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury; Quinnipiac Law School, and; state universities in Willimantic, New Britain and Danbury.

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Results are mixed on the relatively few studies that have been done on the benefits of mentoring for children with parents in prison, the report said. What sets CLICC apart from these organizations, among other things, is that its mentor training is tightly focused on the needs of this specific population, and the model sets service goals for both the child and the parent in prison.

“The CLICC mentoring model was explicitly designed to address parental incarceration and is different in important ways from the models represented by prior evaluation,” the report said.

About half of survey collection happened during the covid-19 pandemic, which threatened to upend the evaluation. Prisons were closed for more than two years to outside programs like CLICC, complicating CLICC’s access to the parents who initiate enrollment for their children and families.

“Enrollment had to reach a certain level so the evaluation could have meaningful results,” said Joy Haenlein, CLICC’s executive director, “and CLICC staff members were unable to recruit incarcerated parents directly for more than two years. That was a huge problem for us.

“We are extremely grateful that CT Department of Correction staff in some of the prisons stepped up to recruit for CLICC and return completed parent applications to us,” she said. “That gave us the information we needed to reach out to caregivers to enroll children and begin mentoring support.”

With in-person contact discouraged during the pandemic, that support took on a different format for children. CLICC switched child mentoring to video conferencing platforms so mentors could deliver consistent support to children who were faced with everything from loss of family income, housing, and close family and friends, to fears that their parents would die of covid in prison before they could see them again.

“This came at a time when many of our mentors were dealing with their own losses and fears,” Haenlein said, “The beauty and strength of CLICC is in its connection — an understanding and willingness for incarcerated parents, their children and families, and mentors to meet each other where they are, and move forward together.”