Families of Incarcerated Individuals began in 1989 after a chance encounter between Andrea Payne and Yvonne Howard four years earlier. In 1985, the women met while visiting incarcerated spouses. What accidently began as an informal support group of two, soon became a support group of twenty.
During one of the nightly support group meetings, two of the children began to fight. After stopping the fight, they were asked why they were fighting. The response they gave was not only frightening but eye opening. The children said they were fighting over whose father had committed the worst crime. That's when Andrea and Yvonne realized that it was never about them but about the children. At that point all of the group's efforts were put into supporting the children first. Providing the children with mentors, tutoring, anger management and anything else that they could think of that would make life more normal for the children became their crusade.
Today, there are over 5,000 children in Shelby County and more than 150,000 in the state of Tennessee who are impacted by incarceration. It is our stated goal and purpose to reach these children and their families and to provide services that foster positive family values and reduces the stigma associated with incarceration.
