Children of Incarcerated Parents

A growing number of additional cities have expressed interest in Amachi.
There is also support at the federal level. In January 2002, when President Bush
signed the bill extending and expanding the Promoting Safe and Stable Families
Program, it included authorization for a mentoring program for children of prisoners;
and, in his 2003 State of the Union Address, he specifically proposed a
$150 million initiative that would bring mentors to 100,000 of those children.
In May, the federal Family and Youth Services Bureau announced the availability
of funds and issued a request for applications for its Mentoring Children of
Prisoners Program.
THE STRUCTURE OF THIS REPORT
As Amachi looks toward expansion, what lessons can policymakers, funders,
and potential new sites learn from the experiences in Philadelphia? This report
describes the challenges and successes of Amachi, to date, and discusses the
implications of those experiences.The following chapter, Chapter II, outlines the
components of the Amachi model and the particular structure of the program in
Philadelphia. Chapter III describes the steps involved in transforming Amachi
from plan to reality, focusing on the strategies for recruiting children, pastors,
and volunteers. Chapter IV then examines the experiences of the mentors and
their mentees, and the challenges and successes of the matches thus far. A concluding
chapter outlines lessons learned from the Amachi experience.
Information for the report is drawn from interviews with program developers,
BBBS and Amachi staff, pastors, church volunteer coordinators, and mentors,
as well as from data collected by P/PV and BBBS.
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AMACHI