Angel Tree program makes sure inmates’ children get a present

[PHOTO COURTESY: CBC News}

Christmas is a happy time of year for many families, though for children with a parent in jail the holiday can be a reminder of what is missing.

But one Canadian charity makes sure those children have something under the tree from their incarcerated mother or father, even if the parent can’t be there in person to see them open it.

The Angel Tree Christmas program, run by a Christian outreach program called Prison Fellowship Canada, distributes presents to as many as 5,000 children every year. Inmates suggest gifts for their children, and they are purchased and distributed by the charity, with the costs covered through donations.

“The aim of the program is essentially keeping that connection between the parent and the child alive,” Stacey Campbell, Prison Fellowship Canada executive director and CEO, tells Yahoo Canada News. “Children who believe they’re forgotten, children who are disconnected, suffer a lot of issues.”

More than 2,200 families across the country received a gift from an incarcerated parent through the Angel Tree program in 2014, according to the Prison Fellowship website, and Campbell says the program has worked with nearly 3,000 families so far this year.

On any given day there are 45,000 Canadian children with a parent in prison, or 256,000 children annually, according to JustKids, an initiative founded by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver to support children with a parent in the justice system.

Children of convicts can face considerable stigma and emotional distress. Research has shown that children with a parent in the justice system experience social isolation and effects similar to those from other forms of parental loss. And in a Canadian Families and Corrections Network survey of Canadian families affected by incarceration, 66.1 per cent reported experiencing moderate or severe distress as a result.

“Because it’s not a respectable, so to speak, issue, they really are the least of the least,” Campbell says.

Finding ways to maintain the connection between a child and an incarcerated parent has important benefits.

“We know that in having the connection it does improve the mental health and the self-esteem of the child,” Campbell says.

Children with a parent in prison are more likely to live in single-income households, which makes the holidays a particularly financially tight time of year for affected families.

“Typically, a child who has an incarcerated parent goes immediately into poverty,” Campbell says.

That means that there is usually no money for the extras, like lessons and extracurriculars, which can leave those children feeling even more isolated.

As for the inmates themselves, the opportunity to make sure that their child has a gift under the tree from them is one way to maintain their parental and family relationships. Keeping those relationships active could even help keep those incarcerated parents at home once they are released.

Several studies have shown that prisoners who maintain family relationships while incarcerated have lower recidivism rates, according to Correctional Service Canada.

Campbell gets it — the reluctance some people have towards helping prisoners, even considering the benefits.

“It’s not the type of thing that you can easily fundraise for,” she says of the program. “It’s the type of thing that takes a lot more education, a lot of one-to-one conversation for people to understand.”

But what is important for Canadians to understand is that in most cases, prisoners are eventually released, so programs like Angel Tree are important for rehabilitation and maintaining social connections, she says.

“People do come back into our communities,” Campbell says. “How do we want them when they come back?”