Help Families Rebuild What Incarceration Has Broken

Start Talking About Rebuilding Relationships (STARR) began with a simple, powerful promise: children deserve to stay connected to their parents, even through the hardest circumstances. When our Executive Director, Corinthia Harper, witnessed her own great-nieces and nephew struggle to maintain a relationship with their father during his incarceration, she saw firsthand how distance, change, and emotional strain can reshape a family.

Over the past thirteen years, those children moved between homes, schools, and states, often separated from one another and forced to adapt again and again. Yet through every change, the desire to remain close to their father never faded. Corinthia knew that one day they would face the challenge of welcoming him back into their lives, and she wanted them, along with families like theirs, to have the support they deserved.

That’s why STARR was created. STARR provides a trauma-informed pathway for incarcerated parents and their children to rebuild trust, communication, and emotional connection long before reunification. It gives families a safe, guided space to heal and prepare for the transition of coming back together.

Today, STARR is making a difference across North Carolina, but the need is so much greater. For this program to reach more families and become a lasting resource beyond grant cycles, we need partners who believe in the power of connection and second chances.

Your gift helps parents and children rebuild their relationship, strengthen their bond, and begin again with hope instead of fear.

Join us in expanding STARR across North Carolina and, one day, across the nation.

Together, we can help families reconnect, heal, and write a new chapter.

STARR Fatherhood Program