Pure Heart Foundation

Pure Heart Foundation mission is to embrace children of incarcerated parents and empower them to break the cycle of generational involvement in the criminal justice system. 

Pure Heart Foundation’s vision is to dismantle the school to prison pipeline system and create a new system that will provide them with resources; instead of targeting them based on the assumption that their parents' incarceration will lead to their own incarceration. Pure Heart will provide them with empowerment and education, instead of the lack resources that leaves them to fall through the cracks of society. Pure Heart will provide them with sustainable positive outcomes that will lead a child with an incarcerated parent to higher education and to live a happy, healthy, fulfilling and FREE life instead of misleading them to prison. Pure Heart Foundation recognizes that children with incarcerated parents have been the silent victims of mass incarceration for far too long and it is our goal to ensure all children with incarcerated parents' silent struggles are addressed, supported and they feel seen. Recidivism isn't the bulk of mass incarceration, it is the forgotten ones, children of incarcerated parents, the ones who are the most forgotten and only acknowledged when it's too late. Pure Heart Foundation will be the immediate intervention and support they deserve and need. The cycle of generational incarceration will end with us.

Children with incarcerated parents statistics: 228,000 children in Michigan has had at least one parent incarcerated before reaching the age of 10. 1 out 10 youth in Michigan and 4 out 10 of youth in Detroit has had a parent incarcerated. 80% of children with incarcerated parents enter the criminal justice system. Children with incarcerated parents are seven times more likely to enter the prison system based on their parents incarceration. Children with incarcerated parent are left to fall through the cracks, leaving 73% of children with incarcerated parents left to experience some form of abuse, housing instability and  poverty.   56% of children with incarcerated parents enter the foster care system, 8 out 10 COIP suffer from comprehension barriers and 89% of COIP suffer from emotional devastation from losing their parent to incarceration. The school to prison pipeline target youth of prisoners in underserved communities causing the cycle of generational incarceration to continue.  

 Pure Heart's solution:  Pure Heart Foundation was Founded by Sherelle Hogan in 2015 with a goal to spread awareness and to break the cycle of generational incarceration. After Ms. Hogan broke the cycle of generational incarceration in her own family, she created a program designed to help other youth and families break the cycle. Ms. Hogan experienced parental incarceration from the age of 4-16, both of her parents were incarcerated, giving her the firsthand experience and expertise to design a program specifically for children of inmates. 

Pure Heart provides critical wraparound services in our integrated approach to youth development. The program consist of 6 pillars: Mental Health, academic enrichment, mentorship, family reunification, recreational and arts and the Donell Johnson Scholarship Fund. Since Pure Heart's inception, we have served nearly 2,500 scholars and families throughout Michigan with immediate intervention, emotional, financial and educational support. Pure Heart has an 100% High School Rate and 0%our scholars has entered the criminal justice system. 

Please consider supporting our efforts as we strive to break the cycle, on scholar at a time. 

To learn more, visit our website: www.pureheartfoundation.org