M.O.M Camp: Incarcerated Mothers & Creative Strategies For Parenting From Prison

• In Event: Raising Hope, Reclaiming Futures: Incarcerated Parents, Their Children, and The Path Forward

Abstract

This presentation highlights a unique parenting program for incarcerated mothers that allowed for their children to spend the night at the facility during their incarceration. Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Alderson in partnership with Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) McDowell and the students at Howard University offered Making Our Memories (M.O.M) 7- Day Camp to enhance a parenting program through the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) by offering the incarcerated mothers the opportunity to spend an afternoon and night with her child/children in active listening, crafting, and parenting programs. This innovative camp designed by Dr. Bahiyyah Muhammad and her decade-long research on children of incarcerated parents, was utilized to foster nurturing relationships with children who may not have seen their mothers over the course of one year or more and was designed with the premise of assisting incarcerated mothers in establishing the expectation of positive outcomes related to re-entering the community and re-establishing the parenting role through family reunification. M.O.M Camp included an individualized follow up program plan that extended until release to help incarcerated mothers improve their family relationships by giving them the tools for growth during incarceration and upon re-entry. M.O.M. Camp offered a time for visiting, activities and programming.

Author

• Bahiyyah MiAllah Muhammad, Howard University