Carolyn LeCroy and The Messages Project

Carolyn LeCroy is an award-winning film and video producer with her own company, Women in Transition, through which she does free-lance work for national television, Fortune 500 companies, and film work for major clients. Her company also works with the transitioning population from prison to the community. In addition, Carolyn currently works for the Virginia Department of Corrections (VA DOC) Substance Abuse Programs, with the Therapeutic Communities across the state and the Transitional Therapeutic Communities. She is a Member of the Governors Re-entry Policy Committee and the Community Based Re-entry Committee for the pilot program in Norfolk. This is the second time Carolyn has been employed by the VA DOC. Initially she was hired as the Statewide Marketing Director for Operation Turnaround, an inmate reentry program, by the then Secretary of Public Safety. She has developed and implemented programs, videos and curricula being used within the correctional facilities and private programs nationally and internationally. The Messages Project is focused on the children left behind when a parent is incarcerated. Since 1999 the Messages Project has visited six state prisons in Virginia three times a year to create videotapes from incarcerated parents to children. The tapes are mailed to children and families, often with a book or poems and messages that might have been read on the tape. Some of the messages have even gone international, though most are throughout the U.S. The mission is to maintain, or in many cases re-build, the connection between imprisoned parents and the children that are left behind.