Meet Melinda and Dr. Krysik of National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melinda and Dr. Krysik.

Melinda and Dr. Krysik, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference was founded by Dr. Judy Krysik, Director of the ASU Center for Child Well-Being and her colleague Dr. Nancy Rodriguez, from the University of California, Irvine. They had discovered that among the discussions surrounding ACES and their impact on child well-being, that very little research was being done or discussed surrounding the impact of incarceration on a child’s well-being.

The more they discussed this revelation with their colleagues in the social work and child well-being space, they realized a conference was desperately needed to increase awareness of the epidemic. According to the Casey Foundation, Arizona has the 4th highest incarceration rate in the nation. There are over two and a half million children nationally who are impacted by parental incarceration, and one in nine children in Arizona has a parent incarcerated. Yet, the conversations surrounding how to care for these children’s physical and emotional well-being are non-existent. This was the reason why they began the National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference, which is now in its third year.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think with any conference, isn’t never going to be a well-paved road. With regard to the actual conference, I believe each year gives us lessons for what we want to better in the next, and with that, we have found a great stride in how things get done.

Incarceration, however, is a tough subject, and a very polarizing one. So our struggles are more trying to do as much good as we can on a very little budget. It’s definitely a hard sell when trying to get businesses to want to be involved with the conference through sponsorship. The ASU Center for Child Well-Being is grant-funded, so the funds to run the conference come from sponsorship dollars which we raise here at the center.

We also get a lot of human service workers who really want to come to the conference, but may not be able to afford to attend. Human Service workers, like social workers, DCS caseworkers, school counselors, don’t make very much money, and we receive many more requests for scholarships each year than we are able to fund. Our struggles always lie with wants and need not aligning in regards to trying to help anyone that wants to attend and is unable to due to financial constraints. It’s hard having to turn people away because you just don’t have the budget to provide another scholarship.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
The ASU Center for Child Well-Being is a research entity of the ASU School of Social Work and the Watts College of Public Policy and Community Solutions. Our center works to increase resilience among families and to build safer and more vibrant communities for young people.

In addition to our conference, we also are Title IV-E waiver evaluators, focusing on the reduction of children in congregate care, we’ve recently partnered with DCS for the National Youth in Transition Database Survey, which surveys Foster Youth as they transition out of state care. Additionally, Dr. Krysik and her colleagues have developed a phenomenal social work education game called Brianna’s World (www.briannasworld.com), and we also develop training programs targeted for the non-profit environment, to aid them in increasing their capacity and infrastructure. You can learn more about Impact Instruction here: https://childwellbeing.asu.edu/nonprofitscarcity

Not to diminish all of the hard work my fellow teammates at the CCWB do, but since this interview started with a discussion about the National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference, I’ll end with another mention! Of course, our research is stellar and our Impact Instruction has truly grown in the Phoenix Non-Profit Sector. However, the conference is the first of its kind in the United States. There isn’t another conference here in the U.S. that addresses issues of incarceration not just in regard to research, but also in the advocacy and public policy spheres.

Now that we are in our third year, we have tasked ourselves with the responsibility to not just make people aware of the issue but also be the banner-holders leading the charge in advocacy and social change. We just closed our call for proposals for presentations for this year’s conference, and from the topics suggested, it looks like we will be able to make this transition!

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I feel like both Dr. Krysik or I could answer this any number of ways between the two of us. However, in regard to the conference and the trajectory it has provided, I can certainly speak to some of our lucky moments.

Last year, in year two, we had wanted to shake things up a bit from year one to year two-in hopes of getting return attendees, but also to avoid a repetition of the previous year’s conference. It had started with the selection of our keynote, Rudy Valdez, director of HBO’s The Sentence. The film is about his sister and her experience with incarceration, and his experience helping to raise and care for his nieces while she served her sentence.

We felt this would be a memorable and emotional keynote and film screening, one that would set the tone for the event. From our decision to bring Rudy in, we were contacted by other film houses (including Oscar Award Winning Participant Media {Roma, Green Book, On the Basis of Sex, Just Mercy}. Having these high-visibility production houses involved in the conference, helped to elevate and promote our conference and what we are doing here in Phoenix. Attendees from last year repeatedly tell us what an emotional and moving experience it was for them, and thankfully word of mouth has given us some wind on our backs in regards to momentum!

Pricing:

• National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference- Early Bird Registration ($375)
• NCIP Non Profit Exhibitor ($300)
• NCIP Exhibitor ($1000)
• NCIP Sponsorships (Start at $2500)

Contact Info:

• Address: 618 N Central Ave #100
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
• Website: childwellbeing.asu.edu/CIP
• Phone: 6024961890
• Email: childwellbeing@asu.edu

Image Credit:
Photo Credit: Everardo Keane, for Arizona State University

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