Look Up and Hope: Strengthening Families Affected by Incarceration Strategic Direction



FamilyLook Up and Hope is defined as promoting the optimum functioning and maintenance of the family to best support the health, development and well-being of the children within the family.

Volunteers of America, after a thoughtful and deliberative process, has selected two system-wide strategic initiatives. The Look Up and Hope strategic initiative aims to reduce poverty and increase family functioning for families who have one or more children under age 18 and an incarcerated mother.

Program Mission

To break the cycle of poverty for children impacted by incarceration.

Program Goals

  • Families Preserved
  • Economic Stability for Families
  • Positive Family Relationships
  • School Success for Children
  • Juvenile Delinquency Prevented

Volunteers of America has been serving prisoners and their families since 1896. Reform and redemption were core values of founders Maud and Ballington Booth. The initiative aims to help families reunite during and after parental incarceration; gain employment and financial management skills necessary to rise out of poverty; and provide emotional support to affected children to help them deal with the disruption caused by their parents’ incarceration.

Volunteers of America local offices in five states were chosen to pilot the Look Up and Hope initiative—Illinois, Indiana, Maine, South Dakota and Texas. Each pilot site has a long-standing relationship with at least one of the initiative’s target populations—incarcerated parents, children and caregivers.

The Look Up and Hope initiative will act as the impetus for Volunteers of America to advocate for public policies that improve the lives of families affected by incarceration, and raise awareness about the unique challenges these families face.

These barriers include being barred from various forms of federal housing because of a parent’s previous conviction; being barred from licensing in trades and professions that would provide meaningful income (i.e. barber, nail technician, some construction trades and types of auto repair).

Additionally, support for family caregivers is a particularly important public policy piece for these families. Kin caregivers provide an essential stabilizing presence for children who are separated from their mothers.


Tier Priorities

Tier One Priorities

1. Advocate and work for full funding of the Second Chance Act.

2. Work to strengthen and enhance kinship care opportunities.

3. Promote policies that support and strengthen families to help them break the cycle of poverty.

4. Expand employment and training opportunities for low-income workers.

5. Promote policies that allow previously incarcerated individuals to earn a living wage.


Other assistive measures include advocating:

1. Increasing the minimum wage and ensure that it is automatically increased to keep pace with inflation.

2. Improving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to be more inclusive for more workers.

3. Providing adequate funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).

4. Maintaining the integrity and strength of the Medicaid program.

5. Supporting policies that provide integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment.

6. Preserving funding for the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).

7. Supporting comprehensive immigration reform that protects vulnerable families.

8. Protecting funding for critical food programs that serve low-income families, including the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and the Community Food and Nutrition Program.

9. Strengthening the Food Stamp Program to better assist the working poor and the elderly.

10. Providing adequate funding for State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to expand.


Tier Two Priorities

1. Increase the minimum wage and ensure that it is automatically increased to keep pace with inflation.

2. Improve the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to be more inclusive for more workers.

3. Provide adequate funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).

4. Maintain the integrity and strength of the Medicaid program.

5. Support policies that provide integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment.

6. Strengthen the Food Stamp Program to better assist the working poor and the elderly.