EUROCHIPS launches National Awareness-raising Week

European Union - June 1-6 2010

EUROCHIPS and its members throughout Europe are launching a National Awareness-raising Week (NAW) for children with imprisoned parents, scheduled to run during the first week of June 2010. Each participating partner will organise a local or national event that coincides with NAW to raise awareness on this group of children, the challenges they face and their special needs.

Amongst other initiatives, Carrefour Prison (Switzerland) is organising an art contest for children, as well as a new seminar on “Parenting and Imprisonment” that will take place in Geneva this autumn.

Bambinisenzasbarre (Italy) is planning an exhibition of children’s artwork.

Relais Enfants Parents (France) will be staging a play at a Paris theater.

Bedford Row Family Project (Ireland) is presenting an exhibition of the work they have carried out with children and will invite ‘Changing Ireland,’ a magazine with national coverage that focuses on positive happenings in communities.

Action for Prisoners’ Families (UK) will be launching a Family Friendly Challenge with information about how to run fun and successful value-for-money family visits.

FFP (Norway) plans to launch a new book for prisoners’ children.

ASBL Relais Enfants Belgique is planning a prison-based awareness-raising seminar in Warsaw to coincide with new legislation in Poland that strengthens imprisoned parents' rights to maintain contact with their children.

The Children's Ombudsman's Office in Croatia will be organising an interactive web conference for teachers, psychologists, social workers and other professionals entitled "Better School Support for Children of Imprisoned Parents” and will be publishing leaflets with information highlighting the best interests of prisoners’ children.

Some are holding virtual events—developing special virtual NAW postcards, for example. NAW will generate local/national press and serve as a pilot event for a European Prisoners’ Children Week (EPCW) in 2011. EPCW will target Members of the European Parliament to underscore that the issue of prisoners’ children is a public health issue, and that specific attention needs to be paid to the repercussions of a parent’s imprisonment on the child`s psychological development and future socialization.

MEPs will be urged to endorse a series of recommendations that aim to improve prison visits conditions for children; and will stress the need for National Observatories for children with imprisoned parents in member countries to be established. Some 800,000 children in the European Union (EU-27) have a parent in prison.

For further information: contact@eurochips.org