Our Story

The Place4Grace was founded in 2009 with the mission to restore families and advocate for children impacted by incarceration. Our programs serve families and children of incarcerated men and women with a focus on family reunification, literacy, providing an environment for extended father and child bonding time, advocacy, and restoration.

Due to an overwhelming lack of programs available assisting fathers and mothers to maintain contact with their child while incarcerated, the Place4Grace’s programs are designed to ensure that strong family bonds between the children and their incarcerated parents are maintained and to ease the trauma in children caused by sharing their parent’s sentence. Our programs are also an important motivator for fathers and mothers to remain discipline free and to participate in positive programming, which lowers recidivism rates upon the parent’s release.

2009:

The Place4Grace was founded in 2009 with the mission to fight for families impacted by incarceration and to strengthen families by improving the bonds between children and their parents imprisoned far from home. The first brochure was created advertising a house in Calipatria where families could rent a room for $25.00 a night with 2 children and a meal to cut down costs incurred when visiting their loved ones in Calipatria State Prison. The Holidays Toys and… Read more

2011:

The Family2Child Literacy program, which records incarcerated men and women reading a book to a child left behind was launched in 2011. Read more

2012:

Camp Grace, our a 5-day music and art-based camp program for children between the ages of 8-14 was launched in 2012 at Calipatria State Prison Read more

2016:

The Place4Grace was awarded round 1 innovative grants from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for its Camp Grace and Family2Child Literacy Programs. Read more

2017:

The Place4Grace was awarded round 2 innovative grants from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for its Camp Grace and Family2Child Literacy Programs. Read more

2018:

The Place4Grace was awarded round 3 innovative grants from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for its Camp Grace and Family2Child Literacy Programs. Read more

2019:

The Place4Grace was awarded round 5 innovative grants from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for its Camp Grace and Family2Child Literacy Programs Read more

2020:

The Place4Grace, in partnership with First 5 of San Bernardino and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, launched the Parent and Child Connection Program, based on its Family2Child Literacy program, in the San Bernardino County Jails. Read more