The space BETWEEN: WHY Generation grace Foundation exists

Before Generation Grace Foundation had a name, it had a feeling.

A tight chest.
A lump in the throat.
A knowing that something was deeply wrong—and normalized anyway.

Some of my earliest memories involve prison visiting rooms.
Not as a concept.
As a place.

The bolted chairs.
The smell you never forget.
The way adults acted like this was just part of life, even when it clearly wasn’t.

No one ever sat me down and said, This will shape you.

But it did.

It taught me how to be quiet.
How not to ask questions.
How to survive disruption without ever calling it trauma.

That’s where this work really started.

When a Sentence Enters a Child’s Body

When a parent goes to prison, the system calls it accountability.

But for kids, it feels like confusion first.
Then loss.
Then adaptation.

Suddenly routines disappear.
Suddenly siblings are separated “temporarily.”
Suddenly home is a place with new rules, new adults, and no space for grief.

Children are told they’re resilient.
That they’ll adjust.
That this is for the best.

What we don’t say out loud is that resilience often looks like shutting down.
Like not asking for help.
Like learning early that love can disappear without warning.

The sentence doesn’t stop with the parent.

It settles into children’s nervous systems.
Into their sense of safety.
Into their understanding of belonging.

I Know This Because I Lived It—Then I Repeated It

I grew up shaped by incarceration.

And later, I became a parent whose children carried the weight of my own mistakes.

That realization is hard to write.
Harder to live with.

What hit me wasn’t just guilt—it was recognition.

The same language.
The same separations.
The same expectations that children would “bounce back.”

They didn’t bounce back when I was a kid.
And they weren’t bouncing back now.

They were adapting.

And adaptation is not the same as healing.

The Space Everyone Skips Over

There is a space the system doesn’t linger in.

The space between:

• a parent and their child

• siblings placed in different homes

• incarceration and reentry

• survival and stability

It’s the space where kids wonder if it’s their fault.
Where parents feel erased.
Where caregivers are overwhelmed and under-supported.

Policies don’t live there.
Checklists don’t reach there.

But damage does.

That’s the space Generation Grace Foundation exists to hold.

We call it The Space Between.

Why Grace Has to Reach the Kids

Breaking the cycle isn’t just about someone getting released.

It’s about what happens while they’re gone.

Do siblings stay connected—or become strangers?
Do children get to keep their culture—or are they asked to assimilate quietly?
Do parents remain parents—or are they reduced to a case number?

Grace that only reaches adults is incomplete.

If it doesn’t reach the kids, the cycle waits patiently.

What This Work Looks Like in Real Life

Generation Grace Foundation exists to protect connection where incarceration threatens to sever it.

Sometimes that looks like a care package—proof that love still exists on the other side of concrete and steel.

Sometimes it looks like helping families afford visits that keep relationships alive.

Sometimes it looks like a room full of kids who don’t have to explain why their parent isn’t home.

This isn’t charity.

It’s interruption.

Interruption of generational harm.
Interruption of silence.
Interruption of the idea that children should carry loss quietly.

They shouldn’t have to.

Why This Is Only the Beginning

There are more stories behind this work than can fit in one post.

Stories about foster care.
About sibling separation.
About growing up visiting prison—and later entering one as a mother.
About the moment I realized the cycle wasn’t behind me—it was standing in front of my children.

Those stories matter.
And they deserve space.

What you’re reading here is the foundation—the part most people skip past in a rush to outcomes and programs.

But before we talk solutions, we have to be honest about the cost.

Because Generation Grace Foundation didn’t come from theory.
It came from lived experience.
From patterns that repeat when no one interrupts them.

If any part of this feels familiar, you’ll recognize what comes next.

This is where it begins.