Strengthening Keiki of Incarcerated Parents Partnership (SKIPP)
SKIPP’s mission is to strengthen, support, and collaborate with community partners of the Strengthening Keiki of Incarcerated Parents Partnership.
Guiding Principles
- All parents want their children to be healthy, happy, and successful.
- Babies and young children need parents/caregivers who are nurturing to form attachments critical to healthy emotional, social and cognitive development.
- Parental resilience requires skills for managing crises as well as everyday challenges of family life.
- To support parents in increasing their knowledge of parenting and child development we must start with honoring the individual’s cultural beliefs and values and existing knowledge and parenting practices.
- Parenting activities that support parents as first teachers expand and enhance their understanding of child development and how to support healthy growth and development that includes opportunities to learn developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant discipline and guidance methods.
- Parents and children learn best through parent-child interaction in conjunction with modeling and coaching.
- Reducing social isolation gives families the ability to engage with others in a positive way and to develop a network of support with others who are caring for children.
- Parents benefit from knowing where and how to access information, referrals and support in times of need.
- Strengthening family relationships supports successful transitioning back into the community and reduces the chance of recidivism.
- Supporting successful transitioning back into the community must begin from the day of sentencing.
- Children and families impacted by an incarcerated family member have unique needs. Promising practices that support and strengthen children of incarcerated parents need to be comprehensive and coordinated and serve the family as a whole.
