In 2024, Children of Incarcerated Caregivers and the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program received a Hub Residency from the University of Minnesota’s Liberal Arts Engagement Hub.
The Liberal Arts Engagement Hub is a unique university space dedicated to fostering public engagement and civil society. It works to build collaborative and reciprocal partnerships between the university and local communities to tackle important social issues. Hub Residencies support community-university collaborative projects that address important public issues through the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Project Overview
The Parental Incarceration and Children’s Human Rights project is a collaboration between the non-profit Children of Incarcerated Caregivers (CIC) and the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program (HRP). We apply an international human rights lens to the issue of parental incarceration, advocating for policy change that protects the rights and best interests of children who are largely invisible when a parent faces incarceration. As recipients of a Hub Residency, CIC and HRP will receive funding, access to the Hub space, university resources, and project amplification throughout 2024-2025.
University of Minnesota Seminar
The project includes an experiential learning course offered to graduate students, law students, and undergraduates at the University of Minnesota. The seminar is co-taught by CIC Board President Julie Matonich and HRP Director Carrie Walling. Throughout the year, students will examine international and domestic laws related to parental incarceration, promote programs that expand community-based alternatives to parental incarceration, and develop policy alternatives to parental incarceration.
Collaborative Workshops
The seminar includes a monthly collaborative workshop in which students and the Policy Team will work together to discuss and analyze policy alternatives to parental incarceration. The workshops aim to build community, identify possible gaps or problems in policy alternatives, and identify the most promising solutions. The workshops will feature guest speakers including legal professionals, policymakers, academic experts, and community members.
The Policy Team
The Policy Team is made up of individuals with a wide range of expertise on the criminal legal system and parental incarceration. This includes those who work directly in the system, members of impacted communities, and individuals with lived experience.
Symposium
On April 17th, 2025, CIC & HRP will co-host a full-day symposium at the University of Minnesota Law School where the results of our work will be shared with the broader community. After the symposium, there will be a reception held at the Weisman Art Museum that will include a discussion of the SEEN exhibition, created in collaboration with the non-profit We Are All Criminals.
CIC-HRP Partnership
The Human Rights Program has been a partner of non-profit Children of Incarcerated Caregivers since its establishment in 2015. The organizations have collaborated on several projects, including a Human Rights course in which University of Minnesota students complete an internship with CIC, a podcast on parental incarceration and sentencing, Humphrey School Capstone Research Projects, and the Prison Nursery Project.
Guiding Values
CIC and HRP share a commitment to advancing human rights locally and globally through research, education, and advocacy. The Parental Incarceration and Children’s Human Rights project reflects the values of both organizations in its core beliefs:
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- Listening. Drawing on multiple sources of knowledge is key to successful research and advocacy. Our learning is guided by the experiences of those who work in the system, members of affected communities, and individuals with lived experience.
- Equity and reciprocity. We value the diverse backgrounds of our team members and their wide variety of expertise. By working alongside community experts and impacted individuals, we ensure that our work is valuable and useful to those who are most affected by it.
- Ethical community-engaged research. Our engagement with community experts is collaborative and non-extractive. The centering of community voices and perspectives throughout the project holds us accountable for ensuring a mutually beneficial partnership and project.
- Accessibility. Our work is intended to serve the communities upon which it is based. We promote transparency and accessibility by making our research process and findings available to the broader community.
The Minnesota Model
The Minnesota Model for Human Rights Research promotes long-term partnerships between academics and human rights practitioners, aiming to advance human rights through research and education. The model includes six core principles that are central to our project:
- Work with partners to develop projects that are responsive to the most pressing needs of the communities within which partner organizations operate;
- Work with partners from the earliest stages of a project, including project design and implementation;
- Draw on multi-disciplinary sources of knowledge and ideas;
- Spend time working closely in-person with partner organizations to build strong personal relationships;
- Be flexible and willing to adjust research priorities and implementation in response to changing circumstances; and
- Share research findings widely, with academic and practitioner audiences, promoting policy results as well as academic publications.