Families, Fathers and Children, Inc.

Our Bronx Parenting Class is back at Murphy Community Center. Same day and time -- Wednesdays at 6:00. Call us if you want more information. 917-287-9044

Our Parenting Class in the Bronx will temporarily meet at the East Tremont Library, 1866 Washington Ave. between E. Tremont and 176 St., because of construction at the Murphy Community Center.

We dismantled the art show on Saturday. It was a great show this year. Thanks to everyone who took time to see it and to read the stories in the brochure. AND special thanks to the Explorers from the 77th Precinct and to Officer Trina Douglas, who put up the show and staffed the opening event and who came and took down and packaged all our art work. Thank you, thank you!

It was a wonderful Opening for our Art Exhibit yesterday afternoon. The show will be up throughout Lent. And very special thanks to Martha Cain and her daughters for all their help and the great cake. I want to share Martha's post and her pictures:

"Today we went to a Art exhibit and we had a lovely time .My daughter's made some of the Artwork and the visitors really love the work ..I also made a delicious classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting to add to the refreshment..I wanted to Thanks Mrs Ellen Edelman for Everything we really had a great time.😊"

Families, Fathers & Children is hosting an exhibit of pictures by children of incarceration. The opening is Saturday, March 11, from 12:00 - 3:00, in St. Augustine's Church, 116 6th Ave., Brooklyn.

The exhibit will remain open until April 20th.

The United States is " the world's jailer" with the highest per capita incarceration rate. Children are the invisible collateral damage of parental incarceration. In Brooklyn, over 9,000 children have a dad in State prison, not counting all the dads in city or county jails or out-of-state prisons. These children have no voice - except for their pictures.

Families, Fathers & Children provides services to children and families when Dad is incarcerated, including providing a voice for these unheard, invisible children.

For further information, please call 718-789-5321 or 917-287-9044.

Our Committee Meetings are open to all our friends... so please come. First one is Wed., Feb 8th at 7:30 - 9:00 pm in the St. Augustine rectory conference room, 116 6th Ave., between Park Place and Sterling Place, in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Take the 2 or 3 train to Bergen and walk down 6th Ave. for 3 blocks. Bring your thoughts and questions. Yes, light refreshments will be served.

We hope you’ll join us in 2017 for the following events:

ART SHOW (pictures & stories by children of incarceration)
• Setting up and hanging the pictures – Fri., March 10
• Grand Opening for Art Show – Sat., March 11
• Taking down the Art Show – Sat., April 8

Halloween Party – Sat., October 28, 3:00-5:00

Christmas Party – Sat., December 23, 3:00-5:00

Committee Meetings. Join us and help in the planning. Wednesday evenings from 7:30 – 9:00 in the rectory, 116 6th Ave.

• Feb. 8
• April 26
• July 12
• Oct. 11

Taking children to see Dad. In February or March? Interested in helping, please call us.

If you want to be included, call us: 917-287-9044 or 718-789-5321.

Christmas Party 2015

Third try to share this adorable turkey. (Thanks, Trini!)

Happy Thanksgiving! To all of you who will enjoy the healing warmth of family, friends and good food. And.... Let us not forget those families that are fragmented and the children whose families are broken by incarceration. Please pray for all of them and for the kind of criminal justice reform that will consider the lives of children whose lives are devastated by incarceration in their families, children who are being cruelly punished through no fault of their own.

Calling all pumpkins and witches….

Families, Fathers & Children invites you to our Halloween Party, Saturday, October 29, 3:00-5:00, in St. Monica Hall. We will have live music, arts & crafts, games, and will make Halloween decorations to take home. We will also serve dinner. Please come and join in the fun ….

Our program provides services to children and families when Dad is incarcerated and we also provide outreach to the men in prison. We need your help. Let us know if you can help set up or can bring some food. Your tray of baked ziti or chicken wings will really be appreciated. Questions? Please call 917-287-9044

Really drained this morning. Too many deaths. Too many victims.

But I need to comment. Just as the wrongs have come in a cluster, so are the individual incidents a cluster of wrongs. I want to speak about the death of Philando Castile in MN. There are many facets to his death and one of them is the reason our agency came into being and that is the unaddressed impact on the child who was part of the event.

Children are the invisible collateral damage of our criminal justice system. Little attention was and is being paid to the 4-year old in the backseat of the car; yet she is one of the victims.

Our mission is to help and advocate for children who are impacted by the criminal justice system. Our mission is to make these invisible victims visible.

As for Diamond Reynolds' daughter, just sitting in a car when a police officer fires into the car is trauma, but all the ensuing happenings added to the intensity of the trauma for her. Children rely on their parents for safety and care in this large and frightening universe. It is not clear whether Mr. Castile was her dad or her step-dad, but whichever he was, he was a father figure in her life. Now he was dead. Then the child witnessed Mom losing all her power to protect this child as Mom was ordered to walk, ordered to get down on her knees, and then was handcuffed. And as Mom broke down while sitting in the police car, the four-year old took on the adult role, trying to comfort her Mom.

Across the U.S., police departments do not have written protocols for arrests made in the presence of children. (I have asked.) One of the officers spoke to the child in a gentle voice, telling her to stand next to Mom. Obviously, he had not been trained in any way about the trauma to the the child and how to lessen the trauma. ... Is Mom safe? Am I safe? .... These questions needed to be addressed. "Well meaning" is not the equivalent of knowing what needs to be done.

As we hopefully address some of the underlying issues that led to the death of Mr. Castile and have led to the deaths of other men, let us not forget the other victims -- the children.

It is my hope that this tragic event may spark some police department somewhere to write a protocol for arrests made in the presence of children and as a gesture of community collaboration, will make the protocol available to the public.