Hour Children

Tuesday was our first day on service sites with YSOP. My team got assigned to work with a group called Hour Children. The non-profit works with incarcerated mothers to help them raise their children. We were told the name stemmed from the fact that children of incarcerated parents only get to visit them for one hour a week.

I was blown away during our brief orientation by the sheer number of resources that were available through this organization alone. They not only provided daycare and weekly prison visits for children, but also extensive work with the mothers including programs, housing, and a food pantry. It must be incredibly convenient for these mothers to have access to everything in one place. I think that it probably encourages the mothers to know they not only have the organization's help, but also the network of other mothers in the program. This network leads to a low reincarceration rate of only 3%.

I was nervous because this was our first service experience of the trip and didn't know what to expect when we first got there. Getting to work in the food pantry with a woman named Alyssa helped me to learn more about the program. The pantry mostly served the Hour Children mothers, but also a portion of the local Spanish and Mandarin community.

The pantry was closed due to weather, but we had prepwork to do for Thursday when it opened. This made me wonder how they told people they were closed besides the sign on the door; which I thought negated the point of being closed so their clients didn't slip in the icy parking lot. Do their clients have cell phones? Or internet access? But it also made me think about their clients. What would they do for those two extra days before they could come to the pantry? Would they have to stretch their meager remaining food for two extra days? Would they have to beg on the street? Would they ave to dip into their rent money for food? What extra stress and decisions does this inconvenience add to the clients' stressful lives?