CHILDREN OF PRISON INMATES CLiF has designed a powerful program to serve children of prison inmates and their families by creating on-site libraries in prison visiting rooms, giving books for children to take home and keep, supporting prisons' Storybook Programs, and offering literacy seminars for prisoners to help them read with their children. Children of prison inmates, for a variety of societal and economic reasons, are at extremely high risk of growing up with low literacy skills. There are approximately 5,000 male and female inmates in 16 prisons across New Hampshire and Vermont. CLiF has sponsored all of these prisons at least once. There are hundreds more inmates in various jails across New Hampshire. Roughly 70% of these inmates perform at the lowest literacy levels and many of them have children of their own. CLiF provides the following support to each prison and jail we sponsor: Books for a Family Visiting Room Library: CLiF donates a total of $2,000 worth of new, high-quality children's books to each prison or jail for an on-site library in a facility's family visiting room for use by children on family visiting days, or by family members and volunteers to read aloud with children. Representatives from each sponsored facility select these books from the CLiF Booklist. Storytelling Presentation: A CLiF representative visits the prison or jail to meet with the children of inmates and their families, deliver the new books, tell stories, and talk about the joys of words, books, and reading. The CLiF presenter also performs interactive storytelling, talks about many of the books being donated to the family visiting room, and reads aloud from some of the books. These events entertain the children and stimulate young minds, but they also model to the adults in the audience -- many of who have had little experience with storytelling -- effective ways to tell stories and read books to children. Books for Children to Keep: CLiF donates a selection of new children's books for the children of inmates to take home and keep. Some children select their books at a special storytelling and book delivery event held at the correctional facility and others their books when they come to visit their mother or father at the prison or jail. Storybook Program: A program offered at many of the prisons and jails in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Storybook Program gives inmates the opportunity to record a book on tape and send it along with the story home to their children. CLiF donates books towards this initiative and helps start storybook programs in interested facilities. Seminars for Parents: A CLiF representative visits the prison or jail to conduct seminars with inmates who are parents on the importance of reading with their children, and how to make reading with children fun and easy, even if an inmate has low literacy skills. The Volunteer Coordinator at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton, VT commented: "I would like to thank you and the foundation for the generous donation of books for both our children's library, and those we have been able to give away as gifts. As you can imagine, having to visit your father in prison is not an ideal situation. The addition of the library has certainly been a great gift! I am told many of the fathers are taking advantage of the books, and use them every week. I would also like to thank you for taking time on Father's Day to visit our facility and read to the families. On behalf of the Department of Corrections, I would like to thank the Children's Literacy Foundation for recognizing the needs of the families of inmates." If you have a prison or jail that you would like us to visit, please suggest a site. You can also view other comments from individuals in prisons and jails where CLiF has have received a sponsorship.