One of my goals for the blog is to share stories of people that have taken their pain from a life experience or something that tugged at their heart and how they turned it into their passion. This story is about Shirley Cochran the founder of Motherly Intercession. Motherly Intercession serves the children of incarcerated parents. The intention is to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration. The children are often hidden victims. Unfortunately, the children’s needs change, increase, and can go unmet following parent’s incarceration.
Motherly Intercession started almost 20 years ago and has served 100’s of children and families. However, it started much smaller. Shirley found her job to be unfulfilling. It just paid the bills. She felt a tugging at her heart and she knew God had something more for her to do with her life. She just didn’t know what that was.
Unexpectedly on a hot summer day she started thinking about Christmas. She thought she could help one family for Christmas but wasn’t sure what that meant. Shirley drove by the county jail on her way to work everyday. One day she decided to pull in and talk to someone. She wasn’t prepared for what was about to happen but felt she could help one family whose mother was incarcerated. She wanted to provide Christmas to the children. One family quickly turned into 23 mothers and 58 children!! Through her faith, family support and fundraising, she provided for all of them that Christmas. She realized she needed to do more and she asked God, “What’s next?” She started her own non-profit, made a budget and plans for her programs. As years went by Shirley said that God always provided even though she never knew how ends were going to be met.
To this day, Shirley and her team have helped many children stay away from the negative affects of having a parent incarcerated. The children are victims and can fall into the risk of school failure/drop out, delinquency and substance use/abuse, and possibly future incarceration. Each child now can have the support they need to stay on the right track. Some of Shirley’s success stories include a girl, Jameshia, who came to them at the age of 13. She graduated with a masters in social work this year and plans to go into law to become an advocate for children facing adversity and challenges as she once did.
My time with Shirley was well spent. I am proud of the lives that have been changed for the better. I walked away feeling even more compassion for the children of incarcerated parents who face some of life’s toughest challenges.
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