Just Time – delivering hope to parents in prison.

• International recognition for Connect42, Tasmanian communications organisation/NFP
• Just Time program has inspired others around the world
• Tasmania opportunity for ‘centre of excellence’

Circle of Security International has recognised the work of Rosie Martin, Founder Connect42, in delivering Just Time to the mums and dads in Tasmania’s Risdon prison.

Since 2014, the Just Time project has delivered the well-respected and well-researched Circle of Security Parent DVD Program® to parents in prison. Tasmanian Government funding from 2018 has allowed Connect42 to expand Just Time to three prison areas.

“I had no idea where this activity would lead. I just knew I had a wonderful tool in my hands [COSP], and that it should be used, not left languishing” said Ms Martin, Founder Connect42.

“I had seen how fabulously the parents in prison engaged with it. I had seen what a leveller it was. The differences in our backgrounds just blurred out like the background of a professional portrait – we were all just parents in the room.”

Just Time is unabashedly about love: fortifying, undergirding, strengthening-of-all-things love. And specifically, how the bonds of love and positive emotion, which form the basis of secure attachment between parent and child, gift that child’s life with mental wellbeing, relationship which grows language and social communication. And from there, on into literacy. And then beyond into further education, employment and pro-social enjoyment of life. And further yet, into citizenship and wisdom.

A similar program piloted with women in prison in New Haven, Connecticut, has also seen great success. The Connecticut Department of Correction now has a project to bring COSP to parents in more state prison facilities. Previously such programs were only available in Connecticut to prisoners upon return to community.

Connect42 welcome this. Just Time has helped men and women find a path to safe and stable relationships. It nourishes participants and it can span the generations to put a circuit-breaker on destructive variables. This collaborative and cooperative program has respect and dignity at its core. It allows parents to have hope to just be parents.

“It is a passion to bring what I know how to do, to men and women whose lives have little of the privilege I have enjoyed. And whose lives, for most, have been devastated by factors outside their control from when they were just soft-cheeked children themselves,” said Ms Martin.

Key facts and figures on Tasmania’s Literacy crisis:  

• 48% of Tasmanians do not have written language skills at a high enough level to manage the comprehension and self-expression demands of daily life when those demands are in written form.
• Connection, communication and functional literacy are the basis of health, wellness, participation in education, crime prevention and reduction, meaningful relationships, employment, and reducing violence. They are important foundation stones for equality and inclusion for all Tasmanians.
• To improve literacy, we need to improve oral language, because the skills of literacy emerge from and are built upon language, connection and communication.
• Without 100% literacy, at least 1 in 2 Tasmanians will continue to experience poorer health and wellbeing, lower educational outcomes, unemployment, violence, social exclusion, and be more likely to end up in the justice system.