Dear Friend,
Whether meeting with a parent in prison or a caregiver in the community, CLICC never
forgets that a child is the tie that binds.
Though they are not responsible, children of the incarcerated can blame themselves for
their parent’s choices (“If I hadn’t bugged Mom for a new bedroom, she wouldn’t have
had to steal to get it.”) (“If I hadn’t been bad, Daddy wouldn’t have argued with Mommy
and hit her.”) These thoughts can cause feelings of shame, stigma, toxic stress and
trauma which, if unaddressed, can create physical and emotional challenges that last a
lifetime.
With your help, CLICC has been an important support for these children and their
families for nearly 12 years. Reading and mentoring is our secret sauce. Reading and
discussing books selected by the children increases communication and strengthens
relationships between incarcerated parent and child — but also between child and the
mentor who is specifically trained by CLICC to support them. Here are a few recent
examples.
Anna was especially happy to meet with her CLICC mentor at the library this
week. Anna’s dad has been arrested again, and reading the “Mya Tibbs” series —
about a spirited, can-do kid like Anna — with her mentor let Anna focus for an
hour on something other than her difficult and painful feelings. If Anna wants to
talk, she knows her CLICC mentor will be there to listen.
While children and their mentors meet, separate mentors work in prison with
approximately 100 parents per week to encourage the family reading habit and help
with their real-life communication and parenting challenges. About 24 children (ages 5-
17) participate in our intensive mentoring per year. A 2023 University of Connecticut
study showed that children in CLICC mentoring experienced fewer emotional, behavioral
and relationship problems.
High-school freshman Maddie likes the graphic novels and anime books she is
reading with her mother, who is incarcerated. Mom and daughter just got
permission to read the books together during visits — a first for that prison. But
Maddie’s real passion is theater, and her new CLICC mentor is a perfect fit. She
directs and performs college theater; she even has performed the play Maddie is
working on now. As Mom reported at her weekly CLICC group meeting: “I haven’t
seen my daughter this excited in a long time. She told me: ‘Mom, she’s a nerdy
theater kid…just like me!’”
These critical connections are nurtured by CLICC’s staff of just three people, one of
whom works part time, and an army of volunteer child mentors, many of whom come to
CLICC to deepen their studies in criminal justice, social work, education or psychology at
a college or university in Connecticut.
John and his mentor will end their CLICC year shortly with a virtual pizza party.
Grandma cares for John while his mother is incarcerated, and she is grateful for
CLICC. John “feels that he has a friend somewhere out there — a big brother, and
that’s helped him a lot…There’s always a child out there who needs to know that
somebody is actually going to take the time and listen to them. For my grandson,
that somebody is (his CLICC mentor.)”
When a parent goes to prison, it takes a team to rally around a child whose only mistake
is blaming themselves for something they didn’t do. CLICC has led the charge on behalf
of these children for 12 years. We need your help to continue.
Please give today by
mailing a check to CLICC, Inc. at 470 James St., Suite 7, New Haven, CT 06513
visiting https://bit.ly/GIVE2CLICC.
Thank you!
Joy L. Haenlein, Executive Director
The Hon. Mary E. Sommer (ret.), Chair of the CLICC Board of Directors