Giving voice

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This article was published 07/09/2024 (450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first four months he spent in the Headingley Correctional Facility, Kyle Woodford’s children could only imagine the sound of their father reading them a bedtime story.

“The kids want to hear their dad at night,” says his partner Danika Letander, who can do the voice of a regal elephant, a friendly dinosaur and even a gigantic red dog, but knows she could never sound exactly like Woodford.

Now, she doesn’t have to. Because of the John Howard Society’s Get the Story Out program, hearing him share a nighttime tale is as simple as clicking play.

Every month, volunteers from the non-profit organization — which aims to provide rehabilitative services to prisoners — visit the Winnipeg Remand Centre, Milner Ridge and Headingley facilities to deliver reading and recording materials, working with institution staff to enable hundreds of children of incarcerated parents in Manitoba to get personalized bedtime recordings each year.

(There may be as many as 460,000 children with incarcerated parents in Canada during any given year; however, this is just an estimate, an Elizabeth Fry Society report noted in 2019. “Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure because they are not counted.”)

Last month marked the first time the Woodford-Letander household participated, receiving MP3 files by email and finely wrapped packages — with a copy of a brand-new book, a bookmark and the special CD — delivered to the doorstep.

“They all thought of it as a present,” says Letander, 27, who is only allowed to bring three of their children each Friday to see their father. “They were in their rooms for almost two hours listening to their dad’s stories.”

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Get the Story Out began in 2009, inspired by the Elizabeth Fry Society’s Tell Me A Story program, which helped incarcerated women share the nurturing ritual of storytelling with their children.

“There’s definitely a need to connect people on the inside with people on the outside,” says Aiden Enns, the interim executive director of the John Howard Society.

“I know, having 18 nieces and nephews and having not only read stories to them, but written stories for them, that they become an influential part in the child’s life. It animates their imagination, and it really creates a bridge between the adult caregiver and the child.”

“One of the things that our punitive and antagonistic justice system does is separate families,” says John Samson Fellows, the John Howard Society’s literacy instructor. “I think we forget that when you put one person in jail, it affects families and wider communities, and so the goal of this program is to try and maintain connections between parents and kids.”

The pandemic worsened already challenging conditions for incarcerated parents and their children, Samson Fellows says.

“It was a particularly difficult and horrifying time to be incarcerated,” says the publisher, poet and songwriter best known for his work with the Weakerthans.

When the pandemic stalled in-person programming and visitation, John Howard established a literacy centre at its Ellice Avenue headquarters aimed at helping clients expand their practical skills as they reintegrate into society.

This year, John Howard revived Get the Story Out, partnering with McNally Robinson Booksellers on a list of 28 donatable titles, ranging from early years to middle grades, available in store or at the store’s website.

“We knew it was the perfect fit. Any chance we have to get a book, especially a new book, into a child’s hands is really important to us. And when we heard the piece about the fathers recording themselves reading, it was the most heartwarming thing. It just blew us away,” says Angela Torgeson, McNally Robinson’s executive manager.

As used books were replaced by new ones, the crackly audio recordings got levelled up, too, courtesy of Christine Fellows, a singer, songwriter, artist and composer, and Samson Fellows’s partner.

“I heard the recordings and thought, ‘Why don’t I put a little bit of underscoring in, just to lift it up?” says Fellows, who had “a gajillion” spare parts kicking around from her nine years scoring Jonathan Goldstein’s podcast Heavyweight.

The result is a one-of-a-kind, direct and elemental audio experience — soundtracked by twinkling tones and the vast space of imagination — revolving around a single human voice.

Woodford invited three-year-old Celeste to Come to the Zany Zoo. With four-year-old Kylie, Woodford shared The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmes. Daytona celebrated his seventh birthday with his father reading about the Dinofours. And 10-year-old Paige listens daily to her dad reading about All That I Can Be.

“I sometimes listen myself when the kids ain’t around because I get lonely, too,” says Letander.

The kids listen on repeat in the car and at home, especially Celeste, who gets so excited to hear her father’s voice that she gasps, vibrating with delight.

The stories also help Woodford, who begins each recording with a personal greeting.

“It really helps my depression (from) being separated from the children,” he says during a phone call with the Free Press. “It really helps keep me calm, even though I’m locked in the cell.”

He enjoys the creativity and humour of the books, which take him back to when he was a child.

“Reading and writing were important to me as a kid. That’s what I did to cope — Robert Munsch, Little Critters, Berenstain Bears, then Tom Clancy and Stephen King,” says Woodford, whose father has been in and out of jail since he was 12 years old.

“This program would for sure have helped me growing up.”

An avid reader, Woodford is determined to share his love of stories with his children, including twins Kyrie and Kylao, born on Aug. 23. The next batch of recordings will include six bedtime stories.

“One book will be for the twins so Danika can read to them,” he says.

“The kids can’t wait,” she says with excitement.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com