Bridges Family Connection Program

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Executive Summary

Bridges Family Connection Program is a nonprofit in Pennsylvania that helps children stay connected with a parent in prison or jail when it is safe. A program van takes children and caregivers to visits, trained staff prepare children before and talk with them after visits, video visit access and fee support are offered when travel is not possible and support groups serve children and caregivers.

Millions of children have a parent in prison, and they often carry stress and stigma with little support. Visits require long trips, gas and sometimes fees that many caregivers cannot afford.

With this grant we will serve about 80 families in Year 1 at 2 sites. We work only with each facility's approval and follow its rules. Visits happen only when the caregiver agrees and it is safe for the child, and staff are mandated reporters. We do not promise any outcome. We promise safe, caring support for every child.

Our Year 1 budget is about $191,500, growing to about $250,500 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 4 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Manager and two part-time family coordinators) and 7 by Year 5.

We are asking the Keystone Family Bonds Foundation for $55,000 for the Program Manager and transportation to visits. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Bridges Family Connection Program is a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. Children should stay connected to a parent who is incarcerated when it is safe, because those bonds help families heal and reduce the chance of future harm.

What we do.
- Provide rides for children and caregivers to visit parents in prison and jail.
- Offer video visit stations and fee support where visits are not possible in person.
- Run parenting classes inside facilities, with agreement from the facility.
- Host child-friendly visiting days with books, crafts and a meal.
- Provide support groups for children and for caregivers.
- Help families prepare for a parent's return home.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We work only with the approval of each facility and follow its rules. We do not give legal advice and do not decide custody or contact. Visits happen only when the caregiver agrees and it is safe for the child. Staff are mandated reporters and follow the law if a child may be in danger. We do not promise any outcome. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of grandparents, a chaplain and a social worker began organizing van rides to a nearby prison for families who could not travel. The vans filled every month. We kept simple records of who rode and how the visits went. This proposal asks for support to move from monthly van rides to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Millions of children have a parent in prison, and these children often carry stress and stigma without much support.

Cost. Visits require long trips, gas, lodging and sometimes fees for calls and video, and many caregivers cannot afford them.

Access. Prisons are often far from where families live, with few buses, and visiting rules can be confusing.

Safety and trust. Caregivers want to know that visits are safe and supervised, and facilities and funders want programs that follow their rules.

Missed benefits. Children who lose contact with a parent may feel abandoned, and parents who lose contact may have a harder time returning home.

What we hear.
- A grandmother says the bus trip takes six hours each way and she cannot make it every month.
- A boy says he has not seen his father since he was six.
- A chaplain says the days children visit are the best days in the prison.
- A mother says her kids ask when they can go and she has no way to take them.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that safe, supported visits can keep families connected and help children cope.

Products & Services

Bridges Family Connection Program gives children with a parent in prison and their caregivers a safe, welcoming place to stay connected and cope.

How the program works.
1. Registration. Caregivers register with a short form and confirm consent for visits.
2. Rides. A program van takes children and caregivers to the facility on set visiting days.
3. Support. Staff and trained volunteers prepare children before visits and talk with them afterward.
4. Child-friendly visits. With the facility's approval, we host visiting days with books, crafts and meals.
5. Video. We provide video visit access and fee support where visits are not possible.
6. Classes. With the facility's approval, parents can take parenting classes inside.
7. Groups. Children and caregivers join support groups and prepare for a parent's return.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our staff and volunteers pass a background check, complete our training in working with children and trauma and are paid or supported for their time. We follow each facility's volunteer approval process.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Services are free. We welcome every family where the caregiver agrees and it is safe for the child, and offer materials in English and Spanish.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Children ages 0 to 17 with a parent in prison or jail, and their caregivers, who live in our service area. Eligibility is a parent in a participating facility, caregiver consent and safety for the child, and no family is turned away for the parent's offense.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our van rides we filled every seat and kept a waiting list. Chaplains and social workers told us that many more families would visit if they had rides and support. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 80 participants at 2 sites. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 200.

Where participants come from.
- Chaplains and facility family programs.
- Schools, counselors and clinics.
- Churches and community agencies.
- Caregivers who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Children gain a link to a parent. Caregivers gain support. Facilities gain calmer visits and families more prepared for release.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a child hugging a parent in a visiting room. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Facility visiting programs. Provide the visits and rarely provide transportation. We bring families.

2. Reentry programs. Help after release and not during incarceration. We start earlier.

3. Child welfare agencies. Focus on safety and custody. We support contact where safe.

4. School counselors. Help children and may not know the family's situation. We partner.

5. Informal help from relatives. Generous and limited.

What makes us different.
- Free rides on set visiting days.
- Support for children before and after visits.
- Video visit access and fee support.
- Parenting classes inside with facility approval.
- Groups for children and caregivers.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with facility staff, chaplains, schools and other family connection programs to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Facilities. We will meet chaplains and family program staff and share information with approved materials.
- Schools and clinics. We will give staff a short referral form and a named contact.
- Churches and agencies. We will talk with leaders who know families.
- Caregivers. We will use a simple phone line and text updates.
- Word of mouth. Caregivers tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit staff and volunteers through faith groups, social work programs and family advocacy groups.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, visits made, families connected and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Obtain facility approvals and begin monthly rides.
- Months 4 to 10: Provide rides, visits, classes and groups with regular check-ins.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey families and facility staff, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Support groups meet at community centers and churches, and visits take place at partner facilities with approval.

Safety and privacy.
- Children are always accompanied by a caregiver or a screened adult, and staff never take a child to a visit without caregiver consent.
- Staff are mandated reporters and follow facility rules and the law.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $13,500 of equipment once at the start: used passenger van with child safety seats ($9,000), child-friendly visit supplies and activity kits ($2,500), laptops and video visit equipment ($2,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Manager, paid $44,000 a year, manages rides, facilities and groups. Two part-time family coordinators, each paid $22,000 a year, support families. We add coordinators as we add facilities.

Management & Organization

Gloria Simmons, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a grandmother who made the long ride to visit my son and wished I could take other families with me. I will complete the training we require of our staff so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Manager manages rides, facilities and groups, and part-time family coordinators support families. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a chaplain, a social worker, a caregiver, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney, a former incarcerated parent and a pastor. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A corrections family services staff member, a child psychologist and a school counselor give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $52,000 a year; program Manager, paid $44,000 a year; family Coordinator (part-time), paid $22,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 80 participants at 2 sites.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 110 participants at 2 sites.
- Year 3: About 140 participants at 3 sites.
- Year 4: About 170 participants at 3 sites.
- Year 5: About 200 participants at 4 sites.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 49 percent of our budget, down from about 67 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $55,000 from the Keystone Family Bonds Foundation for the Program Manager and transportation to visits, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Program Manager salary, $44,000.
- Travel: Transportation to visits for children and caregivers, $11,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 43% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $191,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $7,800 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $127,500; state Corrections Family Services Funding $36,000; foundation Partners $20,000; individual Donors $8,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $52,000; program Manager $44,000; family Coordinator (part-time) $22,000; transportation to Visits about $14,000; video Visit Equipment and Fees about $8,000; parenting Class Materials about $4,000; child-Friendly Visit Supplies about $4,000; staff Training about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $8,000; about $4,700 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $23,500 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $9,000 for used passenger van with child safety seats; $2,500 for child-friendly visit supplies and activity kits; $2,000 for laptops and video visit equipment; $2,500 for attorney review of the caregiver consent, volunteer policy and privacy policy; $1,500 for flyers, banners and a simple website; $2,000 for staff training and background checks; $4,000 for first insurance payment and vehicle registration.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($23,500), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $45,300, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $69,000. We start with $8,000 from our founding board and $63,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a church network, $71,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $191,500 in Year 1 to about $250,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $127,500, $114,500, $124,500, $112,000 and $122,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Corrections Family Services Funding from $36,000 to $60,000; foundation Partners from $20,000 to $44,000; individual Donors from $8,000 to $24,000. Our surplus is planned at about $7,800 in Year 1, about $8,400 in Year 2, about $9,800 in Year 3, about $10,600 in Year 4 and about $12,200 in Year 5. We grow from 2 sites to 4 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $60,300, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $7,660 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per family. In Year 1, our total costs are about $2,296 per family served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more family served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $1,192 per family.

After the grant. State corrections family services funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free family connection option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of familys and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $127,500 in Year 1, growing to $122,500 in Year 5.
- State Corrections Family Services Funding: $36,000 in Year 1, growing to $60,000 in Year 5.
- Foundation Partners: $20,000 in Year 1, growing to $44,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $8,000 in Year 1, growing to $24,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $52,000; program Manager $44,000; family Coordinator (part-time) $22,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: transportation to Visits $14,000; video Visit Equipment and Fees $8,000; parenting Class Materials $4,000; child-Friendly Visit Supplies $4,000; staff Training $3,000; administration and Insurance $8,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year.
- Equipment: $13,500 at the start, then $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $23,500, paid once from $71,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 80 in Year 1, growing to about 200 in Year 5. Sites: 2 in Year 1, growing to 4 by Year 5. Rides run on monthly visiting days, with support groups meeting weekly or monthly.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs