In 1995, Sharon and Frank Neville got a phone call that would change their lives. While volunteering in a women’s prison, a friend of theirs met a woman who was pregnant and due to deliver in two weeks. The mother had no family members she trusted to care for her child, and if no one stepped forward, the baby would have to go into the foster care system.  The mother asked the Nevilles for help. 

After much soul-searching and prayer, the Nevilles agreed to care for the baby until the mother was released, which was supposed to be ten months later. That child is now almost six years old and has lived happily with the Nevilles every day since they picked him up at the hospital. “Unfortunately, his mother continued to make bad choices for her life, so we are happy to be adopting him,” says Sharon Neville.

The Nevilles currently are caring for four children whose mothers are in prison. Each mother who chose to place her child with the Nevilles has done so in order to maintain contact with the child. Regular visits are scheduled which provide an opportunity for the mother and child to bond, as well as for the mother to develop a relationship with the people caring for her child. None of these children experiences a sense of abandonment or confusion about being wanted. The Nevilles picked up each of their four children from the hospital and the children know they are an integral part of the family and that the family will always be there for them.

That’s how Operation Open Arms, Inc. differs from the traditional foster parent system. Our families accept complete and total responsibility for the children in their care. Not just the routine care associated with daily life, but the lifelong investment required to appropriately raise a child. We encourage a relationship between our families and the mothers. The children are taught that “Mommy” loves them very much. Their relationship has more of a quality such as that of a loving aunt and precious niece or nephew. Once released, it is the mother’s responsibility to establish herself as a parent. If she does, then the child can go back to live with his or her mother on a permanent basis. If she fails to, the fond memory of “mommy” is still there.

Sharon Neville sums up the Operation Open Arms, Inc. philosophy and purpose as, “The current cycle of generations repeatedly following each other into jail and prison is phenomenal. We provide an answer to the mother who seeks to stop the cycle in her child’s life.”