Blaine Teahan
Pronouns: He/Him/His
UROP Fellowship: Detroit Community-Engaged Research Program
Research Mentor(s): Tiffany Brown, Jen Christian
Developing Despite Distance (3D)
Presentation Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2020 | DCERP Showcase
Authors: Blaine Teahan
Abstract
Hi, my name is Blaine (he/him), and I’m a rising senior majoring in public health. I worked with Developing Despite Distance, or 3D, a non-profit that supports young men in Detroit who have an incarcerated parent. 3D provides letter writing workshops, group counseling, and advocacy. 3D strengthens these distant parent-child relationships, empowers young men to identify their emotions and create healthy coping strategies, builds strong peer support networks, and reduces the stigma surrounding parental incarceration. 3D is still a relatively young organization. My project centered around building up 3Ds infrastructure for continued growth on different fronts. I worked on creating enrollment forms, developing promotional materials, expanding our reach on social media, conducting interviews, building the website, and compiling funding possibilities. Working with 3D made me aware of the depth of parental incarceration. 1 in 28 kids in the US have an incarcerated parent. Our systems make communication extremely difficult between incarcerated parents and their children. Phone calls are often limited to 15 minutes and can be cost prohibitive. A parent’s sentence is unjustly shared with their child in many ways. Through my work with Tiffany, Jen, and 3D, I met a new community, my cultural humility was expanded, and I believe I will be a better, more loving advocate for justice because of it. Thanks.
Research Disciplines
Social Sciences, Community-Engaged, Public Health, Humanities
