Hour Children
Sister Teresa Fitzgerald, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Sister Teresa Fitzgerald is the founder of Hour Children, an organization that works with women who are or were formerly incarcerated in New York prisons and provides care and services for their children. New York has the third largest female population in the United States. Hour Children runs five residences in Queens, each offering a safe home environment for formerly incarcerated mothers and their children.
My Mother’s House opened in 1986. Staff assumes the care and guardianship of eight children until their mothers are released. Subsequently, My Mother’s House II opened as a home for an additional eight children. Hour Children’s House is a traditional home for ten newly released mothers and their children, and Hour Children’s House II accommodates up to ten mothers on parole and work release and their children. The women receive assistance with finding employment, housing, education, childcare, legal and family counseling, and a food pantry serves about 132,400 meals yearly. Within the Beacon and Taconic Correctional Facilities, Hour Children runs advocacy, parenting, domestic violence and employment readiness programs.
Hour Children also addresses the challenge of locating permanent housing. In 2000, the organization purchased and renovated a five-family building for formerly incarcerated women, which is run by the women who live there. Since its inception, Hour Children has served more than 2,000 families.