Grandmothers Of The Light

Our Mission is actually divided into three areas, separate but interrelated.  We feel that each of the three is so important that they must be treated with equal respect and dedication. 

One:  Grandmothers Of The Light, focusing on children of incarcerated parents or grandparents. 

Keeping relationships alive when one of the people in that relationship is incarcerated is no easy task.  Add to that, one of the people is a child who cannot drive a car, get on a plane alone, or buy stamps to mail a letter, and what you get is estrangement, however involuntary and sorrowful.  In the state of California there are almost a million children who have at least one parent in jail, prison or on parole.  No one even knows the exact numbers because it is so difficult to obtain that information legally and effectively.  The actual numbers could be and probably are much larger. 

Our Mission is to seek and accomplish family reunification by one of several means. a few of which are listed below. 

1.  Furnishing transportation, lodging, meals and other needs for visits by the children to parents in correctional institutions. 

2.  Contributing to payment of phone bills so that children may receive a 15 minute collect call from a parent once a week. 

3.  Furnishing writing materials and postage so that children and inmates may correspond. 

4.  Paying for photos of children on holidays, birthdays or school pictures so parents and grandparents can have current pictures of the kids they love.

 5.  Providing holiday and birthday gifts for the children from an incarcerated parent or grandparent.  

Two:  California Coalition For Children 

All children deserve to be happy, healthy, educated and whole.  But in California 1 in 5 children lives in poverty.  While many of these kids have an incarcerated parent, many more are being raised in single parent families, or in families whose income is below the government standard.  We reach out to all these children to provide for needs that cannot be met by their families.  Some of these kids would like to belong to clubs or organizations that require uniforms, dues or money for outings, we will supply that.  Some of them need special tutoring, money for field trips, school clothes or supplies, a musical instrument, a computer, or any number of things to further their education, identity and self esteem.  We are here for them.  And how about birthdays, Christmas, Halloween costumes and other holiday parties and events for which there is no extra money in the family?  Our grandmothers (and others) want to help. 

Three: The California Prisoners Coalition 

If we want to help the children, we must also help the parents and grandparents who are incarcerated.  About 80% of them are incarcerated for non violent crimes or drugs.  A majority have no real work skills or support system on the streets.  About 70% will go back into custody through the revolving door of recidivism.  More than 90% come from abusive or dysfunctional homes.  The majority have low self esteem, poor educations, and no way to make much of a living.  But the one thing they all have in common is that they do love their kids and grand kids, just like the rest of us.

If you want to know the best person to teach a child NOT to go to jail, ask an incarcerated parent.  They want a better life for their kids, a brighter future.  Even better, they have a lot more influence over their kids than you and I do.  Kids love their parents, even lousy parents, and like it or not folks, their role model is Mom and Dad even if they are doing a life sentence.  We want to let incarcerated parents BE parents as best they can from behind bars.  You will find that the vast majority will tell their kids to go to school, brush their teeth, make their beds, go to church, and be good.  The ones who won't have usually already lost their parental rights anyway. 

This Coalition is to further prison reform, rehabilitation, and restoration of parents and grandparents behind bars who do not want to lose their families while they are doing time. 

So there you have a snapshot of our three basic units and what they are focused on doing.  More detailed information can be found throughout our web site.  Thank you for your time and concern, and we hope you will join with us on our journey to keeping relationships alive and well.

Whom we serve:

We are focused primarily on children in the state of California.  Specifically, we look toward serving the children and grandchildren of individuals in the California penal system whether it be at the county jail level (pre-trial detainees), the state or federal prison level (persons convicted of a felony doing time in a California state or United States federal prison), or those who remain on probation or parole.  In addition, we are also here for California's children of adversity who face poverty or other adverse conditions such as illness, abuse, children under 18 who must function as caregivers for disabled family members or siblings, and children with special needs. 

By extension, we also serve incarcerated parents or grandparents (though on a smaller scale) and at this point in our development we are working almost exclusively with the women.  In the future we hope to extend our services to include the men as well.  We recognize that many families are comprised of single dads as well as moms, and of grandparents and other family members.  Our focus is on the children and services are open to all regardless of ethnicity, religious preferences, gender, sexual orientation or any other reason other than need.  Everyone is welcome and treated with dignity and respect accordingly.

 

Our Objectives:

Our primary objective is the reunification and preservation of the family unit.  When an adult goes into custody, more often than not a child is left behind.  Often multiple children are left behind. In some cases there is a parent who is free to care for the children, sometimes it is a grandparent or another adult family member.  Other times children must be placed in foster care or a facility designed to care for them in the absence of another option.

 

No matter what the individual situation is, the result is always the same.....a broken family unit.  If steps are not taken to insure that the children can remain in contact with the absent parent, a permanent rift can occur that is difficult or impossible to close later on.  In addition, children who have an incarcerated parent face unique feelings of shame, fear, embarrassment, lonliness, poor self esteem, isolation and anger.  They may be deprived of material needs and wants due to lack of money.  They may feel unloved and left out of the loop.

 

Our objective is to work with other agencies and the children directly to facilitate family visits, mail and phone calls to parents and grandparents, material needs as we are able to provide, special needs such as money for field trips, camps, clubs, and other activities, and when needed medical, dental, or educational expenses not otherwise covered.

 

Poverty isolates and discourages.  It tells a child they are limited and restricted.  It takes the fun out of their lives and the smile off those sweet faces.  Kids should not be victims of dysfunctional adults, addicted adults, or even cruel adults.  When they are, they often grow up to repeat that behavior because it is all they know.  Our objective is to show them another way, another life, another hope.

 

Our Goals:

Setting goals is kind of an ongoing thing if you do it right!  You accomplish what you set before you and then create new goals.  So I am going to say that this is our FIRST set of goals with other sets to follow as we grow and accomplish what we have set out to do.  Ultimately of course, we would like to see every child in a happy family environment, well cared for and loved.  No poverty, no doing without, no one lonely or depressed are noble things to hope for but without hard work and prayer those things won't happen. In the reality of life the best we can hope for is to simply work towards those things, one child at a time.  We would like to see a series of motels, houses or other shelters where visitors to the prisons can stop and spend the night, give kids a nap or a bath, fix a meal, or just rest a bit.  These need to be up and down the state of California as there are prisons everywhere, most of them in far reaching areas that require long car or bus rides. We would like to have an MCI fund that pays for collect calls so that parents can talk to their kids on a regular basis.  We would like to have a postage/writing fund to provide the children with stamps and writing materials.  We would like to have a food fund that provides meals for travelers, meals for visitors inside the prison visiting room, and snacks for the kids on the buses.  We would like to have a North Pole fund for gifts for the children at Christmas and for birthdays and other holidays while Mom or Dad is gone.

We would like to have special funds for kids who are just living below the poverty line and need money for music lessons, field trips, summer camps, anything and everything that they cannot otherwise afford.  To these kids proms, school events, summer trips, camping trips and gear, etc are luxuries out of their reach.

We want to give them what their folks would if they could.  That's what grandparents are for.  And that's what we are here for.

 

Our Tools:

Without very special tools and resources we would not be able to do the things we do.  So many wonderful people are a part of what we do.  We refer out to many agencies as individual situations demand.  We call upon many people who are credentialed in their field and who possess the knowledge and expertise that we must have to give a child the best possible result.  Those resources are listed below and we are proud and honored to have them. One of the most important tools we use is prayer.  That is something everyone can donate regardless of their financial situation.  The more prayers going up for us, the more blessings they bring down to us.  We depend on the thoughtful prayers of those who support us to keep this organization functioning in the path we believe the Lord has set forth for us.  All decisions are made after prayerful consideration. Another important tool is money.  We believe in the concept of tithing and giving so that is a part of our budget.  We are wholly dependent on private donations at this time to pay our bills, and implement our programs.  Perhaps in the future we will seek grants, but at this time we depend on you. 

Not least in the important tool department is the help and support of our volunteers.  People make everything happen and without them we would be unable to do anything including raise money.  We are blessed with wonderful people who have big hearts and strong backs and who take us where we want to go.  Please visit the websites of our resources and consider giving to them as well.  They are our village of helping hands.