On behalf of the Justice Involved Women Taskforce of the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators (MWCL), Representative Christine Barber and I would like to thank everyone for their donations and continued support of the "Mom and Me” program.
“Mom and Me” is a day long summer-camp-style program held on the grounds of MCI-Framingham. The camp allows children of women incarcerated at MCI-Framingham to spend quality time together with their mothers. The program was offered for the first time in July of 2016, four times in 2017, and 2018. The program was offered twice in June 2019 and will be offered again twice in August. “Mom and Me” was initially proposed to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett by the Justice-Involved Women Task Force, a subgroup of MCWL.
This year the event took place over two weekends in June and August at MCI Framingham and continues to be a success. Between the four days a total of 33 women, 53 children and 46 caregivers participated. Many of the women participated in both weekends. New this year, participation was extended to great-grandparents and even aunts.
In June, the theme was “Summer Fun”. Participants had a variety of crafts to choose from, corn hole, table games, a bubble machine, a karaoke machine, face painting and basketball. A cook-out lunch was provided. One big hit was “decorate your own cookie” which the children thoroughly enjoyed. The culinary program baked sugar cookies and MCI-Framingham provided frosting, candies, sprinkles, and rice crispy treats for decorating. They were able to bring this home along with their crafts and a picture with mom.
In August the theme was “Back to School” which was another big hit. Your donations provided back to school supplies that the women picked out and packed specifically for the child visiting them. Fifteen Children under the age of 5 received a bag, coloring book, a box of crayons, and bubbles; and eighteen children ages 5 and over received a backpack, pencil case, 3 folders, a notebook, 3 pencils, 3 eraser caps, 1 large eraser, 2 highlighters, 1 dry erase marker, 1 blue pen, 1 black pen, 1 red pen, 3 glue sticks, a package of colored pencils, a pack of crayons and a ruler. Any extra donations will be saved for next year.
Want to learn more about the program? Would you like to donate to the cause? Call the office to talk to a #TeamKhan member about the meaningful cause.
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