When a group of talented and hardworking middle-school girls combine a strong social conscience with a passion for dance, amazing things happen. Back in October, the Golden Lionesses of The Child Center of NY’s SONYC Queens United afterschool program performed a dance focused on the theme of “broken homes” at our Second Annual Lights on Afterschool event. In attendance were representatives from Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman’s office and Councilman Donovan Richards’ office.

It’s never too soon to instill in children the importance of financial literacy — and it’s never too late for their parents to achieve it. That’s why The Child Center promotes the concepts of budgeting and saving in age-appropriate ways across our programs.

With all the recent press surrounding criminal justice issues—including President Obama’s record number of sentence commutations and his substantial piece in Harvard Law Review about the need to replace a policy of ongoing punishment with a policy of second chances—where is the mention of incarcerated mothers?