PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Ellen Edelman loves to look back on pictures of the Christmas celebrations held for Families, Fathers & Children over the years, and she credits The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund for helping put smiles on the faces of those in need.
Edelman is the executive director of Families, Fathers & Children, an organization that helps families affected by incarceration. She started the organization in 2007 after seeing a need to aid families fragmented by members being in prison.
“We believed that we could begin to be a voice for these families,” Edelman explained. “We could work to heal relationships and we could advocate for these families and educate the community as to the value of these families.”
Edelman recalled that when Families, Fathers & Children held their first Christmas party, they sent informational flyers to agencies and social services offices in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, where many members of the group’s target population live.
“Pamela Fuller, a lifelong resident of Brownsville, picked up our flyer and brought her children to our party, including her 5-year-old and 9-year-old,” said Edelman. “The next year and all the years following, she brought not only her children but her neighbors’ children, her relatives and their children.”
Edelman said that Fuller’s neighbors began to rely on her for advice and guidance as to how to best get services for their children and she has become well known in the community for her knowledge and her leadership.
“She is very appreciative of our parties, telling us ‘Nobody realizes that our children have nothing, nothing, and the presents, the food, everything that we have at our parties makes Christmas for them,’ ” Edelman recalled. Today, Fuller’s youngest child, who was 5 when she first attended a Families, Fathers & Children party, is now at Kingsborough Community College and is doing very well.
It was also in 2007 that Father Thomas Ahern, then pastor at St. Teresa of Avila in Crown Heights, who is currently pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in South Ozone Park, wanted to reach out to teens in the neighborhood.
Edelman said that at that time, one-third of the state prisoners came from Central Brooklyn and by starting a program for teens, she believed Families, Fathers & Children could identify families who were impacted by incarceration.
“We started as an afterschool drop-in program on Monday nights where teens could come to do homework, visit with friends, play table games, draw pictures, cook dinner, eat dinner family style sitting together at tables, and cleaning up afterwards,” said Edelman.
Eventually the word spread, and the nonprofit initially began by taking families to visit relatives in prison. Edelman recalled the first family that her organization was able to help by taking the children to visit their father in prison.
“The youngest child in this family was 8 years old. She has since graduated from high school and has a job with the city. Her then 10-year-old sister also graduated from high school and she is now managing a Domino’s Pizza. We are still in touch with this family and not one of the nine children has ever been to prison.”
Over the years, the Families, Fathers & Children program has grown to include visits to dads in prison so children can stay touch with their fathers, parenting classes for parolees who relapsed and are offered “second chance” programs, advocacy for children who have been affected by incarceration, and a Christmas party for families with loved ones in prison.
And that’s where Bright Christmas funds make a world of difference. They help provide activities, including music and arts and crafts, a buffet dinner that families can enjoy together, and a toy for every child.
For example, James Palmero has been leading the interactive music activity for many years. Edelman explained that whether he is alone playing his harmonica or accompanied by his friends on the guitar, he provides music that the children and their families can listen to, sing to, and even play along with on drums and rhythm band instruments.
Edelman credits the volunteers who help make Christmas happen for the children and their families. “We are extremely grateful to the many people who contribute to Bright Christmas, without which we could not make this happen,” she added.
If you want to donate to Bright Christmas, just head to TheTablet.Org.