The John Andrews Charitable Trust was delighted to help out a SOVA project called Visiting Mum. A unique project that aims to benefit imprisoned mothers from South Wales held at HMP Eastwood Park and their children still living across the region. It aims to:

• Combat the “hidden sentence” endured by children whilst their mothers are in prison.
• Combat the poor mental health outcomes and increase the wellbeing of children of imprisoned mothers.
• Increase community safety by reducing reoffending

Many of the children of imprisoned mothers are prevented from maintaining contact with their parent. The two biggest factors for this are the cost of travel and the lack of an adult to take the children to visit their parent whilst they are in prison.  Visiting Mum identifies families who are likely to lose contact during a prison sentence.

The project works with the mothers to help them continue in their parenting role from prison and provides the children with volunteers who will take them to Eastwood Park on a regular basis and offer the wrap around emotional support they need.

For more information go to http://www.sova.org.uk/project/visitingmum. Or even more importantly if you thought you’d like to volunteer to help – follow the details on that page.