{"id":30474,"date":"2018-07-12T15:48:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T20:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30474"},"modified":"2018-07-13T12:33:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T17:33:26","slug":"tulsa-nonprofit-teaches-parenting-skills-to-help-mothers-and-children-beat-addiction-and-avoid-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/07\/12\/tulsa-nonprofit-teaches-parenting-skills-to-help-mothers-and-children-beat-addiction-and-avoid-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Tulsa nonprofit teaches parenting skills to help mothers and children beat addiction and avoid prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_30480\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30480\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"Sarah Sinkinson and her daughter collaborate on a charcoal drawing in a visitation room at Women in Recovery.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/SarahMadelineDrawing-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Sinkinson gets regular visits with her children while she completes the program at Women in Recovery.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/470850921&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p><p>It\u2019s been three weeks since Sarah Sinkinson last saw her children and she\u2019s ready for a visit from her daughter, Madeline. Sinkinson lights up as her daughter is escorted into a small visitation room and sits down at a desk opposite her.<\/p><p>Sinkinson is recovering from drug addiction. Mothers struggling with addiction often have a hard time making connections with their children. This can be especially challenging for moms facing criminal charges and the prospect of jail or prison time. Experts say rebuilding these relationships can help mothers overcome their addictions \u2014 and even steer their children off the path to prison.<\/p><p><!--more-->Today, Sinkinson is helping her daughter with a charcoal drawing for art class. Her daughter<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0says\u00a0<\/span>she hasn\u2019t used charcoal before, so Sinkinson reassures her that it\u2019s fun, but admits that she\u2019s not very good at drawing eyes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>For years, Sinkinson came in and out of her children&#8217;s\u2019 lives, abusing alcohol, marijuana, prescription pills and meth. Now, she\u2019s part of Women in Recovery, a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>program managed by a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fcsok.org\">Tulsa nonprofit<\/a> that provides behavioral health and family services. Sinkinson usually visits with her three kids every two weeks.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Women in Recovery is a treatment and rehabilitation option Tulsa courts give some women arrested for crimes stemming from drug abuse. If Sinkinson graduates the program, she won\u2019t have to go to prison. Sinkinson faces charges for possession of meth and paraphernalia, possession of a stolen vehicle, public intoxication and violating a protective order.<\/p>\n<h3>Parenting to Heal<\/h3><p>Women in Recovery is one of just a few non-government programs Oklahoma courts partner with to give women struggling with addiction an alternative to prison.<\/p><p>Oklahoma has the country\u2019s highest female incarceration rate and state prisons are severely overcrowded. Eighty-five percent of women in Oklahoma prisons who responded to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ok.gov\/occy\/documents\/CIP%2520incarcerated%2520women%2520study%2520report%25202014.pdf\">2014 study<\/a> said they were mothers. Those numbers are a concern because experts and officials say children with parents in prison are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ok.gov\/occy\/documents\/CIP%2520Report%25202017.pdf\">overwhelmingly more likely to spend time in prison than other children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30496\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30496\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-1920x1507.jpg\" alt=\"Amanda Gaddy stands in the hallway at Women in Recovery.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-1920x1507.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-500x392.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-768x603.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-150x118.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-620x487.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Amanda-Gaddy-1-1376x1080.jpg 1376w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amanda Gaddy is supervisor of Parenting and Children&#8217;s Services at Women in Recovery.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Amanda Gaddy is head of parenting and children\u2019s services at Women in Recovery. She supervises Sinkinson and her daughter\u2019s interaction from behind a two-way mirror in an adjacent room.<\/p><p>Children are often traumatized when they\u2019re separated from mothers serving jail or prison time, Gaddy said. She hopes the recovery program helps prevent a generational cycle of incarceration by teaching struggling mothers to be parents.<\/p><p>Most of the women in the Tulsa program have been abusing drugs for 10 to 15 years, Gaddy said. \u201cMost of them have never parented their children sober before,\u201d she said, adding that many of the women didn\u2019t get healthy parenting as children either, so they don\u2019t have a model to use with their kids.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Gaddy and her staff teach the mothers parenting skills and concepts like the differences between discipline and punishment, appropriate activities for kids \u2014 and how mothers can meet their children\u2019s emotional needs.<\/p><p>The visitation room is a space for the mothers like Alexis Stephens to put those lessons into practice before they begin actively parenting on their own. Inside a downtown studio apartment that\u2019s a five-minute drive from Women in Recovery, Stephen\u2019s 9-year-old son Carson is asleep in the living room after getting home from camp. Addison, her 2-year-old, is watching television.<\/p><p>\u201cShe loves cartoons,\u201d Stephens said. \u201cShe loves to sing-along, she loves to sing.\u201d<\/p><p>Stephens is a Women in Recovery graduate. She has a job and full custody of both her children. Before the program, she couldn\u2019t have imagined this life. In 2016, Stephens was homeless. Her son was living with his grandmother, and she gave birth to her daughter in jail. She says Women in Recovery was her only chance to stay out of prison.<\/p><p>\u201cWe took a lot of classes on recognizing our addiction, our triggers,\u201d Stephens said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30475\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30475\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-1920x1253.jpg\" alt=\"Alexis Stephens smiles at her 2-year-old daughter sitting at their kitchen table before eating a cupcake.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-1920x1253.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-500x326.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-768x501.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-150x98.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-620x404.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/Addison-Alexis1-e1531423435521-1655x1080.jpg 1655w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alexis Stephens earned full custody of her two children after graduating from Women in Recovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Superheroes Who Fight Bad Feelings<\/h3><p>When her parental visits started, Stephens had to deal with her son\u2019s anger for the first time. He was angry because, for years, Stephens says she neglected him. He was happy living with his grandmother and didn\u2019t want to leave.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Stephens\u2019 son went through therapy with the same <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fcsok.org\">nonprofit<\/a> that manages Women in Recovery. He learned to cope with his anger and even created a comic book about a character named<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Firestrike \u2014 a hero born into a superhero family.<\/p><p>Stephens has a professionally bound copy of the comic the staff at Women in Recovery gave her as a graduation present. She flips through the pages and explains how the story relates to real life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Her son is Firestrike. Firestrike\u2019s mom, Flamer, is a superhero who loses her powers when a thief named Addiction steals them. The mother recovers and teams up with Firestrike to fight Icy Waters, a villain who represents the negative emotions Carson struggled with in real life. The hero learns that he is stronger when he fights with his mom.<\/p><p>\u201cHe talks about the healing powers of his mom,\u201d Stephens said, her eyes watering and voice shaking. \u201cThere\u2019s a page that says, \u2018I got you,\u2019 because that\u2019s what I always tell him.\u201d<\/p><p>In the end, Firestrike and Flamer make headlines in the news for beating the bad guy together.<\/p><p>It turns out eyes aren\u2019t the only hard thing to draw with charcoal. Sarah Sinkinson is showing her daughter a trick to learning how to draw feet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Sinkinson is working toward becoming her own superhero. She says battling personal villains on the way to recovery has been hard, but getting to see her kids gives her motivation to keep fighting. No matter what happens in the future, she plans to be honest with her kids about her problems and struggles.<\/p><p>\u201cYou have to keep the kids safe first, but longterm it\u2019s so damaging for a kid to just stop talking to their mom,\u201d Sinkinson said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A nonprofit helping mothers avoid prison and recover from addiction also helps them rebuild relationships with their children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":30479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[915,916,917,919,918,914,913],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30474"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30501,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30474\/revisions\/30501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}