My Fairy GodParents (MFGP) brought three generations of lived experience, advocacy and family perspective to Arizona State University’s 2026 National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference with “Trust Isn’t Protection: What Caregivers Need to Know About Raising Children Through Parental Incarceration.”
The presentation introduced conference attendees to The Young Family Triumvirate, MFGP’s three-voice model bringing together the perspectives of a caregiver, a child who experienced parental incarceration and a formerly incarcerated parent navigating reentry and family reintegration.
MFGP Founder and Executive Director LaDàna Young delivered the workshop in person, with Anyé Young and Cedric Young incorporated into the multimedia PowerPoint presentation to ensure all three perspectives were represented.
MFGP Board Member Derricka McDaniel also attended in person, providing important on-site support for the organization and its presentation throughout the conference.
From a 30-Minute Proposal to a Full-Hour Workshop
MFGP originally proposed Trust Isn’t Protection as a 30-minute presentation with a brief Q&A.
After selecting the workshop for its national conference, the ASU team asked MFGP to expand the presentation to a full 60-minute session, creating an opportunity to take attendees deeper into the realities families face during parental incarceration and reentry.
At the center of the workshop was a simple but often overlooked distinction: Trust is not a support plan.
Families need more than assurances that everything will work out. They need accurate information, child-centered communication, caregiver resources, economic stability, accountability and practical pathways to support.
The presentation challenged participants to examine what institutions and even well-intentioned adults can miss when attempting to “protect” children and families from the realities of incarceration.
Three Voices. One Family. A Broader Story.
The Young Family Triumvirate allowed MFGP to examine those realities from three interconnected perspectives.
LaDàna Young brought the caregiver, founder and advocacy perspective, addressing what it means to hold a family together while navigating systems that are often focused primarily on the incarcerated individual.
“Trust is not a support plan.
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Anyé Young, author of Teen Guide to Living With Incarcerated Parents, contributed the perspective of a young person who grew up experiencing parental incarceration, helping center the voice of the child in conversations too often conducted around them.
Cedric Young contributed the perspective of incarceration, reentry, employment and family reintegration, demonstrating why the challenges families face do not simply disappear when incarceration ends.
Together, their experiences illustrated one of MFGP’s central messages: parental incarceration and reentry are family-stability issues.
Supporting that work in person, McDaniel’s presence also reflected the role MFGP’s board plays in advancing the organization’s mission and helping carry its work into national spaces.
Turning Lived Experience Into Advocacy
For MFGP, presenting at ASU was about more than sharing one family’s story. It was about demonstrating what becomes possible when lived experience is translated into practical advocacy.
The workshop asked professionals, researchers, caregivers and advocates to consider whether the systems surrounding justice-impacted families provide what families actually need to remain connected and stable, and whether children themselves are being meaningfully included in those conversations.
The Young Family Triumvirate offers MFGP a way to bring those perspectives into the same room rather than examining incarceration, childhood, caregiving and reentry as separate experiences.
MFGP’s participation at ASU also created opportunities to build relationships with organizations and advocates from across the country working on behalf of children and families impacted by incarceration.
Those relationships continue to inform MFGP’s expanding work in storytelling and advocacy, family and caregiver support, and opportunities and pathways for justice-impacted youth and families.
Trust Isn’t Protection began as a proposed 30-minute conversation. At ASU, it became an hour-long national platform for three voices from one family and a larger question at the heart of MFGP’s work: What does meaningful support look like when we listen to the entire family?