Children of Incarcerated Parents

1. A combination of four factors was essential: structure, management, commitment,
and resources.
New programs are often built on the commitment and charisma of one
leader.Those programs may be implemented successfully in one or a few locations
on a relatively small scale, and can seem promising to policymakers and
funders as they search for successful approaches for addressing a defined social
problem. But too often, when a small program attempts to grow to scale, it
struggles, makes compromises, and loses its focus—and, thus, becomes unlikely
to lead to the outcomes it was designed to achieve.
Implementing Amachi clearly required highly committed leadership. But it
was able to grow quickly to a reasonably large scale and establish the groundwork
for further expansion because the leadership was working within a context
of three other key factors: a solid structure, close management, and
adequate resources.
The project is structured around a partnership that includes clearly defined
roles, responsibilities, and accountability; and that structure was built on a foundation
of research on the benefits of mentoring and effective practices that lead
to those benefits. Because Amachi relies on a large number of partners fulfilling
their individual responsibilities as well as working together, it has, in the words
of one planner,“a lot of moving parts.”Thus, a strong system of management—
with the ability to handle administrative and financial responsibilities, data collection
and analysis, and troubleshooting—was built into the project’s design.
Finally,Amachi had the necessary financial resources for planning and implementation.The
fact that it had those resources was also a factor in gaining pastors’
commitment to the project. Many inner-city communities are wary about people
coming to them to ask for their help in implementing new projects—they have
too much experience with putting their time, effort, and hope into initiatives that
offer promise but do not take hold because there are not adequate resources.With
Amachi, pastors felt comfortable that the volunteers from their congregations
would be offering their time and effort within a more stable environment.
2. One partner was an organization that had substantive experience with
mentoring and could provide the necessary infrastructure.
Screening, training, and matching mentors and providing case management
for the matches require time and expertise. As evaluations of effective mentoring
programs have demonstrated, this kind of strong infrastructure needs to be in
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AMACHI