Children visiting mothers in a West Yorkshire Prison will get help and support
More than 800 children and young adults visiting their mothers in prison in Wakefield will be helped to cope with the stress and mental health difficulties of having a parent in custody, thanks to a grant from to the Newhall Kidz charity.
The £11,800 grant to Newhall Kidz will help to fund the children’s play facility within His Majesty’s Prison and Young Offender Institution (HMP & YOI) New Hall in Wakefield.
The charity helps children, and their mothers engage in play during every domestic visit, allowing them to re-bond with each other after their separation, allowing all parties to have some semblance of normality.
The Newhall Kidz project has run successfully for 23 years and has continually strived to help children cope better with a prison visit and the associated stress, trauma, and difficulties this can often produce, whilst improving and maintaining the prisoner’s relationships with their families.
The Newhall Kidz play facility is for all children visiting HMP & YOI New Hall. It offers a playwork approach where the environment is sensitive to the needs of each child. During sessions, the prisoners can come into play, interact and re-bond with their own children, this helps reaffirm and develop relationships which may have been lost through their separation, and in the long term helps assist in reducing re-offending as prisoners with positive family ties are up to six times less likely to re -offend.
It is estimated that more than 200,000 children are affected by parents in prison, and around 17,000 children are separated by the incarceration of their mothers each year. These children are disadvantaged in many ways, including poverty and deprivation and often find their emotional and development needs disregarded, forgotten, or denigrated. Furthermore, they are often faced with stigma, which can exclude them from activities, social events and even friendships. The children can struggle in school and often suffer from health issues.
In addition to this, some service users are not with their immediate families, as they are in social care and separated from their siblings, this coupled with the separation from their loved one who is serving a sentence can prove to be even more distressing. Older children who reach high school age, with a parent in prison, are twice as likely to experience conduct problems and will underachieve in school. In addition to this we also know that children with a parent in prison often feel isolated and ashamed – unable to talk about their situation as they fear being bullied or judged. These children often face emotional challenges which can be displayed by denial, anger, bargaining, guilt, shock and depression.
We’re very grateful to Yorkshire Freemason for their generous grant, which will help us to Continue with our much loved and much needed Children’s Play facility within HMP & YOI New Hall. It can be incredibly hard for a child to cope with having a mother in prison. In addition to mental health problems, having an imprisoned mother can lead to underperforming at school and feelings of shame and isolation. The children are often referred to as serving a hidden sentence and re-bonding with their mother is absolutely essential
As Freemasons, we are very pleased to be able to help Newhall Kidz who do such an outstanding job helping children visiting their mothers in prison. This is a hugely important project that helps the children cope with everyday life despite having a mother, who is in prison, and it also supports the mothers, who are not able to care for their children. It is also a powerful tool that helps to prevent to prevent re-offending.
