A Message from the Founders

Welcome to the official website of Operation Open Arms, Inc., a growing organization dedicated to ensuring that children with mothers in jail find safe and loving homes.

As you navigate this site, you will discover as we did how important a cause it is. On any given day, 1.5 million children live with one or both parents in prison. For 200,000 girls and boys, it is mom who is behind bars.

The responsibility for raising these children usually falls on the shoulders of relatives - many aged, some ill-equipped and most financially strained. The other option has been traditional foster care.

We stand in awe of relatives, agency professionals and foster parents who, for so many years, have been carrying this burden alone. But stark statistics and headline-grabbing tales of neglect make it clear that more options are required. For example, studies show that youngsters with mothers in jail are more likely to do poorly in school and suffer emotional and behavioral problems. And consider this: Nationwide, fully 50 percent of children in the juvenile justice system have a parent in prison!

The idea for Operation Open Arms, Inc. was sparked when we heard about Sharon Neville, a volunteer in a local women's prison who had accepted the responsibility of caring for the baby of an inmate who had no family to turn to. That little boy today is a happy seven-year-old and Sharon and her husband - who have since taken on three additional children - serve as our first Operation Open Arms family. Through Operation Open Arms Inc., a four-bedroom house was acquired for the family. The organization also bought them a van and provides resources to ensure their needs are met.

"Commitment," as demonstrated so laudably by the Nevilles, is the heart and soul of the Operation Open Arms, Inc. philosophy. We only seek families willing to provide stable and nurturing homes where a child can live as long as necessary - a few weeks, a few months or a few years. Our simple dream is for every child to get up in the morning knowing he or she will go to sleep that night loved, well fed and in the same bed.

If you are able to make such a commitment, we invite you to apply. Your financial support also will be welcome.

Children with moms in jail have committed no crime, yet too often their suffering is worse than they would find in a prison. They need your help.

Sincerely,

Cathy and Irving Bailey