Children of Incarcerated Parents

To organize and manage the clusters, Amachi developed a staff position for
Community Impact Directors (CIDs). Four CIDs were hired—one for each of
the clusters. All four had been involved in their communities and their congregations:
two were pastors while the others had backgrounds in human services.
Each was responsible for the day-to-day activities of a cluster and worked with
both the CVCs and the BBBS Mentor Support Coordinators.
The Role of the “Champion”
Effective mentoring does not happen automatically; nor do effective partnerships
between secular and faith-based organizations.While the partnership
between BBBS and the congregations was intended to provide the structure and
support that would lead to large numbers of volunteers who would be effective
mentors, it was also important to have someone who could facilitate the partnership,
someone with credibility in both the secular and faith-based communities.
In Philadelphia, Rev. Dr.W.Wilson Goode, Sr., fulfilled that role. Senior
Advisor on Faith-Based Initiatives for P/PV and director of the Amachi program,
Rev. Goode had been mayor of Philadelphia from 1984 to 1992. He had
also, for decades, been deeply involved with the inner-city churches and knew
many of the pastors from previous work with them.
Rev. Goode was thus uniquely positioned to provide credibility for Amachi
and to mediate, as necessary, between the secular and faith-based institutions.
He was key to getting the project up and running quickly, and on a large scale.
As the following chapter indicates, he played the crucial role in recruiting both
children of prisoners and the pastors whose congregations would provide
mentors for them.
HOW AMACHI WORKS 11