Family Connections and Reading Connections are programs run by Madison Urban Ministry that work to help children maintain contacts with family members who are incarcerated. Both programs are funded by donations and grants and are free to people making use of them and work to help maintain connections so a prison sentence doesn’t mean an end to contact with a person’s family.
Family Connections takes a bus once a month to Taycheedah Correctional Institution so that Dane County children can visit with incarcerated mothers. Currently we go on the second Saturday of the month, leaving from Madison’s east side early in the morning and returning in the mid-afternoon. We provide breakfast and lunch on the bus.
Reading Connections is a program that helps people incarcerated at Taycheedah or Waupun maintain connections with their children who can’t travel for an actual visit. We shoot a video of the parent reading a book to their child. We then send the book, a disk of the parent reading, and a letter from the mother or father to the child.
If you’d like to take advantage of our programs, please contact Ruth Poochigian at (608) 256-0906. We’re a non-profit organization staffed almost entirely by volunteers. If you’d like to volunteer, call 256-0906. If you’d like to make a donation, send a check to MUM at 2300 S Park St #5, Madison, WI 53713 and write Family Connections in the memo line, or go to the MUM web page at www.emum.org.
