A lot has happened since recognition in 2008 by CNN and Johnson & Johnson of The Messages Project as an organization that contributes to social problem solving through direct action. This is the first of what will be regular updates directed at supporters and partners in our effort to develop more effective bonds between children and incarcerated parents. With thanks to you, the last four months have been very productive. <strong>Goal: better understanding and problem solving in nurturing the inmate-child bond, and in breaking the intergenerational connections with crime and substance abuse.</strong> The effects of visitation and other forms of communication between children and parents in prison are not much studied or understood. The Messages Project has joined with psychology and sociology faculty and students of the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary in a structured program to better understand how Messages can be more effective, and used in context with other forms of communication. We think that this work can make a contribution to the field beyond our own efforts. <strong>Goal: extending the methods and goals of The Messages Project to states and communities outside of Virginia.</strong> We are currently responding to initiatives from the states of Missouri and Nebraska to institute Messages projects within their prison systems, and working with a federal women's prison in Texas to institute the first Messages Project within the federal system. <strong>Goal: using Messages as one component of more effective Parenting-from-Prison programs.</strong> Messages is just one of many tools to be used to prompt and reinforce the effectiveness of parent education within the prisons. No matter the length of sentences or geographic distance from home, incarcerated parents can be effective influences in the lives of their children. Messages projects planned for Missouri and Nebraska will play a pro-active role in Parenting from Prison programs, while we continue to develop our role in Virginia. Missouri offers an opportunity to expand the influence of Messages outside the prison through their partnerships of community providers organized under their VISTA project. We are investigating more direct programs and services for the children and their caretakers connected directly with expanded in-prison parenting services for the incarcerated parent. <strong>Goal: using attention to The Messages Project to bring wider attention to the problems and solutions for children of incarcerated parents.</strong> Carolyn LeCroy will be speaking to the conventions of the Virginia State Bar Association in April and the American Bar Association in June on the effects of incarceration on children and families. Carolyn will be the keynote speaker, and conduct a workshop, on the effects of incarceration on families and the use of The Messages Project for the convention of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in August. Carolyn's work on behalf of incarcerated parents and their children was commended by a resolution of the Virginia General Assembly in its 2009 session, and she will receive the Governor's Volunteerism and Community Service Award from Governor Tim Kaine in April. <strong>Goal: strengthen the structural and financial strength of The Messages Project for continuing development, as above.</strong> We are developing a manual for the project that will offer comprehensive treatment of the goals and methods of Messages as it relates to parenting from prison that will allow us to help the establishment of this work in prisons and among similar organizations nationwide, while retaining our core principles and procedures. We have received generous grants from the Annenberg and Herb Alpert Foundations. They are being used in multiple ways: <ul> <li>to support the core work of creating videos for inmates and their children,</li> <li>to assist in planning comprehensive Messages and Parenting from Prison projects with the states of Missouri and Nebraska,</li> <li>to help us complete The Messages Project Manual,</li> <li>to help with out of pocket expenses for academic study of Messages effectiveness in context with other forms of communication.</li> </ul> With a clearly defined model for The Messages Project plus a companion Parenting from Prison Program, we are positioning ourselves to request further grant funding that will allow us to greatly expand and partner with many more prisons and inmate parenting programs across the country. In the meantime, we still seek contributions to support out of pocket expenses for our core work of traveling to prisons and helping parents communicate with their children. <strong>Thank you for your attention and support. There are still 1.7 million American children with parents in prison, and work to be done on their behalf while that number increases.</strong> <em>Carolyn</em>
