Staying in Closer Touch

SICT is an amazing 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that links incarcerated parents with their children through reading with the goal of nurturing closer parent-child relationships and fostering literacy and a love of books. SICT currently has volunteers making weekly visits on Tuesday nights at Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility, 3201 Beemis Rd., Ypsilanti, MI. Prior to the COVID pandemic, we also provided services at Milan Men's low security federal prison at  4004 Arkona Rd., Milan, MI and Washtenaw County Jail at 2201 Hogback Rd., Ann Arbor, MI prior to the COVID pandemic. We expect to resume services at these two additional facilities in the near future.

The volunteer opportunities include prison visits to help inmates select books to read to their children. Volunteers who do prison visits work in pairs and audiotape the inmates reading a book to their child. The books and audiotapes are then mailed to the children by other volunteers who work from home. Additional volunteer work includes selecting and purchasing books for the program, maintaining our donor/volunteer/participant database, fundraising, and monitoring and updating our website and Facebook page.

 Volunteers may express interest in volunteering by emailing us at contact@stayinginclosertouch.org or submitting a form through our website Volunteer tab at www.stayinginclosertouch.org. Upon expressing an interest in volunteering, prospective volunteers are contacted and interviewed about their interest. Volunteers must be at least 18. Volunteers who make prison visits will undergo a background check and will receive orientation and instruction on the rules and policies of the prison they go to volunteer. They will be accompanied by experienced volunteers at their first few prison visits.