Innovative program founded by Fredonia graduate improves behavior, literacy among inmates, and helps them stay in contact with their children.
Biology graduate Dana Abendschein, Ph.D., founded the program
Connecting parents and children
Data have shown that low self-esteem and poor literacy contribute to an intergenerational cycle of incarceration among families.
Children of offenders are seven times more likely to be incarcerated as adults than children of parents not in prison. Story Link Program seeks to break this vicious cycle by helping offenders read to their kids and to stay connected with their families.
Many who have been in the Program claim they can read better and are able to see improved reading skills among their kids.
Because offenders who participate must be free of conduct violations for 30 days, discipline and self-esteem are both improved as a bonus of doing something positive for their children.
The Chautauqua County Jail and the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES in cooperation with Reed Library at SUNY Fredonia, the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System, the Chautauqua Lake Central School District, and the Orchard Park Presbyterian Church announce the start of Story Link Program, a new program to help offenders stay in touch with their children.
Story Link Program, based in St. Louis, Mo., and currently serving 15 state and federal adult prisons in Missouri and Illinois, provides the means for offenders to read a book and record a message to their child on a cassette tape or CD or thumb drive. The book and recording are then sent to the family at no expense to either the offender or family.
A press conference about the program sponsored by SUNY Fredonia will be held Monday, May 10 at 2:30 p.m. Program Founder Dr. Dana Abendschein (1974, Biology) will also give the lecture, “Maintaining a Balance Between Science and Humor” for interested faculty and students.
The program was founded in 1998 by Dr. Abendschein, a SUNY Fredonia graduate, who with his wife Jane, directs the sponsoring non-profit Liberty Belle Ministries. Dr. Abendschein teaches in the cardiovascular division at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Story Link Program is totally supported by donations and grants, and since its inception has sent over 40,000 books and recordings to the children of offenders. This is the first reading program for offenders with children in New York State.
On Wednesday, May 12, Dr. Abendschein and Ms. LeFauve will give a presentation on Story Link Program at the New York State Association of Incarcerated Education Programs, Inc. in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Elizabeth “Libby” Hirsch, an Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES instructor on staff at the Chautauqua County Jail heard about the Program from the founder’s sister, Shari LeFauve, a Deacon at Orchard Park Presbyterian Church. Ms. Hirsch oversees the Program by helping the incarcerated parents select an age-appropriate book and read the book and record a message on a digital recorder. She then makes the CD and mails or delivers the book and CD to the offender’s children.
SUNY Fredonia has worked with Ms. Hirsch and the Chautauqua County Jail over the last three years as part of the activities for the Big Read. Ms. LeFauve thought the youth at her church could collect books as a community service project and with the support of the Director of Christian Education, Linda Babcock; they collected over 500 new and gently used books to start the Jail Program. The Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System is also hosting a book collection for Story Link Program and have drop boxes located at 26 library branches throughout the county.
For more information about the press conference and other activities at SUNY Fredonia, please call Randolph Gadikian, Director of Reed Library at 716-673-3181. For more information about the New York State Association for Incarcerated Education Programs, please visit http://nysaiep.org. For more information about Story Link Program and how you can get involved, please visit http://libertybelleministries.org.
