News
October Highlights
Highlights of our staff and program accomplishments throughout October.
- In its fortieth year of keeping incarcerated parents and their children connected, Osborne’s FamilyWorks hosted the third graduation of the year last week at Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County. Sixteen participants completed courses in parenting and strengthening relationships, as well as a one-day Fatherhood Forum. This was the first-ever graduation ceremony at the facility, which was followed by a special luncheon with staff and other attendees.
- Earlier this month, Osborne hosted “Across the Divide: What it Takes to Have a Relationship with an Incarcerated Parent,” an evening of film and creative expression honoring the voices and heroic persistence of children who overcome barriers to build and maintain relationships with their incarcerated parents. The evening (pictured above) featured film screenings, performances, and a panel discussion moderated by Osborne’s Allison Hollihan, Director of See Us, Support Us and the NY Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents, featuring Dr. Hena Ali-Bernard (Supervisor of Social Workers, NYC Public Schools), Kharon Benson (Senior Producer, Echoes of Incarceration), and author Harriet Clark, who also read from her acclaimed new novel, “The Hill.”
- Yesterday, three day rooms in Rikers Island jails transformed into stages for talent shows organized by staff from our Building Resilience and Validating Experiences (BRAVE) Program. Twenty people in jail with skills including drawing, poetry, and spoken word competed before a panel of three corrections staff and three other people being held there. One contestant used a wall to make a beat and performed a rap called “21 Minutes,” named for the length of time phone calls with loved ones last on Rikers.
- Osborne’s Annual Toy Drive has started! For as little as $6, you can help make the holidays a little brighter for children with incarcerated loved ones. Every year, Osborne distributes hundreds of toys to children and young people during holiday events at our Brooklyn and Buffalo community sites. We also provide toys for incarcerated parents to give to their children during holiday visits at our five Family Centers in Westchester, Dutchess, Ulster, and Sullivan counties. We need your help and generosity! Shop our wish list. If your employer would like to partner with Osborne for this year’s drive, contact our Development team.
- The work of pioneering prison reformer Thomas Mott Osborne, in whose memory our organization is named, is featured in an episode of “Crime and Punishment in America,” an upcoming PBS film from writer, director, and producer Lynn Novick. It will air on four consecutive nights from November 16 to 19. Learn more here. Novick previously directed “College Behind Bars,” which was shot over four years in medium and maximum security prisons in New York.