Families Serve Sentences Too™
STOP Stigma. CREATE Change. LOVE Forward.
Statewide support for children, adult children, caregivers, and families navigating the shared sentence of parental incarceration.
Love Forward Foundation
An interactive digital family-stability navigation system designed for families navigating parental incarceration. Instead of requiring families to know what organization or service they need, the Portal begins with one simple question: “What is happening with your family right now?” From there, families are guided toward practical information, tools, resources, and support based on what they are actually experiencing.
An experiential and educational framework that brings the impact of parental incarceration to life through the experiences of children, adult children, caregivers, and families serving the sentence on the outside.
Seeing the Needs of Children and Caregivers Impacted by Parental Incarceration
Project SEEN is our primary funded work for 2026. It focuses on identifying and responding to the needs of children and caregivers impacted by parental incarceration, especially needs that can easily go unseen when families do not disclose what they are experiencing. The work includes practical family tools and resources, access support, community education, partnerships, and connections to resources. For 2026, Project SEEN is funded through support from the Community Foundation and the Kiwanis Club.
Featured initiative
Project SEEN is our primary funded work for 2026. It focuses on identifying and responding to the needs of children and caregivers impacted by parental incarceration, especially needs that can easily go unseen when families do not disclose what they are experiencing. The work includes practical family tools and resources, access support, community education, partnerships, and connections to resources. For 2026, Project SEEN is funded through support from the Community Foundation and the Kiwanis Club.
Ask about Project SEENAbout
Founder & Executive Director
Rooted in lived experience with parental incarceration, Keisha Nicholson founded Love Forward Foundation in 2015. What began as grassroots support has grown into an organization focused on helping children, adult children, caregivers, and families navigate the shared sentence of parental incarceration while building practical solutions that strengthen family stability.
Keisha Nicholson, Love Forward Foundation.
Our roots
For more than a decade, Love Forward Foundation has created spaces where families can connect, create, learn, and feel seen. Our community-based work helped shape what we are building today.
Creative Haven created welcoming spaces for families to connect through creativity, conversation, and shared experiences. The lessons learned through this work helped shape Love Forward Foundation's continued focus on family stability, access, connection, and support.
Pick a Truth, Write + Release, Ground with a Heart, Tie a Thread, and more — tools that meet families where they are.
Create & Skate, Comm(UNITY) Kickback, and community outreach that kept families connected and visible.
Values
Recognition & press
Recognition
Love Forward Foundation received a $10,000 Pay It Forward Award through the Family and Children's Trust Fund of Virginia's 40th Anniversary FACT Champions initiative. Love Forward Foundation was selected by Champion for Children Charlé McCauley in recognition of its work supporting children, caregivers, and families impacted by parental incarceration.
Recognized October 1, 2026 · FACT of Virginia 40th Anniversary Celebration · Virginia Museum of History & Culture, RichmondAs seen in
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