Times of crisis create new opportunities. In the twenty-year history of the Center For Restorative Justice Works (CRJW), no crisis has had a greater impact on our work to connect families with incarcerated loved ones than the Covid-19 pandemic. Thanks to support from the LA2050 Grants Challenge, we are using this crisis to transform the way we help children and families CONNECT with a parent or family member in prison. This marks a critical turning point in our program history, and coincides with major changes taking place in California prisons.

Towards the end of 2020, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) adopted a new policy allowing families to communicate through videoconferencing technology. Just like the Zoom hangouts and Google Meets that we have all used as lifelines to connect with our friends, colleagues, and families during the pandemic, now children will be able to connect with their incarcerated parents through video chat. This is a gamechanger for children who sometimes go months and years without being able to say “I love you" to their parents. Many children we serve at CRJW have now gone more than two years without seeing an incarcerated mother or father.

During the pandemic, many children have used letter writing to keep in touch with incarcerated parents. The GOTB Hub provides a new way for children to connect regularly with a parent through video visits.

With the support of LA2050, CRJW is creating a pioneering program that empowers children in LA County to make these precious connections through video visits. Called the Get On The Bus Hub, this program extends GOTB's in-person visitation services to include video visits. The GOTB Hub in Los Angeles is a first-of-its-kind effort to provide year-round family reunification services for children and families with incarcerated parents.

Program Updates – GOTB Hub Los Angeles

In 2021, we laid the groundwork for our first GOTB Hub event in Los Angeles, which is scheduled to take place in May 2022. First, we purchased laptops that CRJW families will be able to use at the Hub for video visits. In acknowledgment of the incredible work LA2050 and the Goldhirsh Foundation are doing to connect Los Angeles non-profits not only with the community but also with each other, we were able to procure these laptops through another LA2050 winner, Human-IT.

With devices successfully acquired, we set out to find a venue that would be able to host the Los Angeles GOTB Hub on a weekly basis. With help from Deacon Jim Carper of St. Bernadette Catholic Church in South Los Angeles, we soon found a perfect setting for the Hub. We are pleased to announce that Stella Academy will be the location of the Los Angeles GOTB Hub. We are overwhelmed by the generosity and support of this school, which has offered to open its doors to the children and families we serve. The school setting will provide access to several classrooms for children to have private conversations with their mothers and fathers.

View of a classroom at Stella Academy in South Los Angeles, which will host GOTB Hub events in 2022. Thank you to Stella Academy for your incredible support!

Volunteers at the Los Angeles GOTB Hub will assist children and families in filling out forms to register for video visits, provide language assistance for families that don't speak English, and register families for in-person visits after the pandemic. Hubs will also serve as important communication channels to inform families about policy changes, and to gather information about the number of children experiencing parental incarceration. While the state does not regularly track statistics on the number of children impacted by parental incarceration, loose estimates suggest as many as 100,000 children in Los Angeles County have a parent in prison.

GOTB Hubs will be a new way to get GOTB's wonderful volunteers involved with the important work of family reunification. Covid-19 has made it difficult to host volunteer events.

The Los Angeles GOTB Hub is not just about providing screens and internet – it's about bringing together a community of volunteers, local organizations, schools, and people to support one of LA County's most vulnerable populations. Hubs will also provide food, fun and educational activities, homework help, and access to a support network of caring volunteers and professional staff.

What's Next?

We are currently coordinating with 33 California state prisons and CDCR to facilitate year-round video visits through the GOTB Hub. This represents a significant increase from the 13 institutions currently served by Get On The Bus. In May 2022, we will launch the GOTB Hub at Stella Academy with a special grand opening event.

While we had hoped to launch our first GOTB Hub event in 2021, Covid had other plans. But May is just around the corner, and the GOTB Hub will be a transformational program for family reunification! Going forward, Get On The Bus and the Center For Restorative Justice Works will now be able to CONNECT families year-round, both through video visits and in-person visits. Thank you to LA2050, and to all of our supporters for making this possible.

We invite you to consider becoming a volunteer at the Los Angeles GOTB Hub. For more information, please visit us at https://crjw.org/get-on-the-bus/opportunities-get-involved-gotb/