The idea for storybook originated in 1993 with a program founded by Lutheran Social Services in Chicago. Judith Dullnig was inspired by friends in Louisville, KY who had a similar program. After about a year of research, connecting with a social worker within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, finding volunteers and searching for funding, Storybook Project began within the Outreach Program at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Austin, Texas. Five volunteers carried 4 tape recorders, 25 new books, tapes and padded mailers to the Hilltop facility in Gatesville, Texas in 2003. The Gatesville area has 6 female prisons and has the largest number of female offenders in one area in the country.
Judith was invited to transfer Storybook Project to Texas Inmate Families Association, and it remained there for two years. TIFA planned to include men in the program which would change the dimensions of Storybook Project. The program then became Women’s Storybook Project of Texas which continued to focus on children of incarcerated mothers. Since 2005, Women’s Storybook Project has been under the umbrella of Austin Community Foundation.
The Women’s Storybook Project is now available in 5 of the 8 Texas Department of Criminal Justice Prisons with a goal of providing the program in all the female prisons where applicable. Currently there are 150 active volunteers servicing the Gatesville, Texas prisons and the Plane/Henley facility in Dayton, Texas. The volunteer base includes women from several churches and synagogues making WSP a very active inter-faith community project.
About 350 new books and tapes are mailed monthly to children around the United States.
Since its inception, Women’s Storybook Project has been the recipient of many awards. Among them, in 2006, The National Crime Prevention Council named Storybook Project as one of the top strategies in the country for faith and restorative justice.