At the 2019 COPE Forum for Reflection and Exchange in Krakow, 35 COPE members and affiliates gathered to share challenges and positive practices from the previous year. The Forum presents a unique opportunity for COPE network members to work together and explore innovative initiatives designed to improve the wellbeing and access to rights for children affected by parental imprisonment.
This year’s Forum included a focus on child participation, as well as discussions on family-based initiatives in the community and how to support the child-parent relationship while the parent is in prison. Shari Prins, a member of Exodus Netherlands’ Youth Ambassadors group, spoke about her experience of her father being in prison for eight years when she was a child. The Youth Ambassadors programme is a support group run by Exodus which allows young people affected by parental imprisonment to meet and discuss their experience, while at the same time allowing them opportunities for advocacy, for example working closely with the Child Ombudsman to present a wishlist.
A number of questions were raised which considered how to involve children in projects ethically. It is important to find a balance between having children share their voices and opinions, and children potentially feeling vulnerable or stigmatised by this participation. Recurring themes in the discussion included the need to prepare and follow up with children and young people if they are to participate in a project, and the idea of an ethical feedback loop which helps children to feel more engaged and part of the process.
Sports games were highlighted as a positive initiative to strengthen the child-parent relationship when a parent is in prison, allowing for more relaxed opportunities for conversation, as opposed to formal prison visits.