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Children of incarcerated parents are the silent victims of crime. Indeed, one of the unintended consequences of sending a parent to prison is the damage and injustice done to their children. These children often receive a life sentence of social stigma, economic deprivation, low self-esteem, and feelings of hopelessness. Yet, these children have done nothing wrong – they have committed no crime! An even more staggering statistic is that somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of these children will follow their parents into the prison system unless someone intervenes in their lives. Children of incarcerated parents and their families are the focus of a
new initiative developed by our Catholic Charities Office here at the Diocese. The program is called Guiding
Children of Promise. The purpose of the program is to strengthen and restore hope to families by helping
their children develop healthy nurturing relationships and by improving their educational, physical, emotional,
and spiritual well-being. The program motto is “Children of Promise Led by Men and Women of Christ”.
Those of you who want to answer the call of our Lord to minister to the
imprisoned, but do not feel that you can go into a jail or prison, please consider becoming a mentor in this
program or a program coordinator at your parish, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” Mt 9:37.
To receive information on the Guiding Children of Promise program, please
select this link and complete the inquiry form.
Thank you for caring about the least of these.
Terry Buquet
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