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Promoting Literacy Through the Institutional Reading Program

EFry’s Storybook Program supports parents who are incarcerated in maintaining meaningful connections with their children through shared reading. Recognizing that incarceration can disrupt family relationships and familiar routines, the program creates an opportunity for parents to remain present in their children’s lives and share a comforting experience, even while they are apart.

Through the program, participating parents select an age-appropriate book and record themselves reading the story aloud. The book and recording are then shared with their child, allowing them to hear their parent’s voice and experience story time together across the distance. EFry coordinates the materials and support needed to make each connection possible in a respectful and encouraging environment.

Shared reading can strengthen parent-child relationships, support children’s literacy and imagination, and create positive memories for families. For parents, the program offers a meaningful way to express love and care, provide comfort to their children, strengthen their parenting role, and remain connected to an important family routine. Each story becomes more than a book – it is a reminder to children that they are loved, remembered, and connected to their parent.

The goal of the Storybook Program is to reduce the impacts of family separation by creating opportunities for connection, learning, and belonging. Through a trauma-informed, family- centred, strengths-based, and non-judgmental approach, EFry honours the dignity of parents who are incarcerated and recognizes the importance of supporting healthy, meaningful relationships between parents and children.

For more information about the Storybook Program, please contact:

Looking ahead, I hope to one day give back to EFry and support others the way I was supported. Thank you, EFry, for your compassion, your resources, and your unwavering commitment to helping women and families in need.

Hamasa

The assistance I received from EFry went beyond practical support—it gave me hope and reminded me that I wasn’t alone. Their compassionate, client-centered approach helped me feel seen, heard, and supported during a time when I truly needed it.

Anonymous