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