Amachi: "People of Faith Mentoring Children of Promise"
Children of incarcerated parents are at especially high risk for behavior problems, poor academic performance, and ending up in prison themselves. To counter these risks, the Amachi program provides adult mentors recruited from inner city congregations. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s interest in the program grew out of concern expressed by residents in Making Connections neighborhoods about the impact of incarceration and return of ex-prisoners and out of its desire to see Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BBBS), a co-founder of Amachi with Public/Private Ventures, become more involved in low-income communities. Besides "betting" on these two respected organizations, this was a "bet" on W. Wilson Goode, Sr., former Philadelphia mayor and an ordained minister. In the first year of the Philadelphia pilot, Goode recruited forty-two congregations from which mentors were secured for 500 children. The Foundation has provided a relatively small proportion of Amachi funding, but by joining early and being flexible in how the grants are used, we have contributed significantly to the program's spread and achievements.
- Amachi matched about 500 children with mentors in the first full operational year of the Philadelphia pilot. In only six years, the number of children in a mentoring relationship arranged by an Amachi-affiliated or -inspired program has grown to 36,000 per year nationwide. Since Amachi’s founding, a total of over 100,000 children of incarcerated parents have been served.
- In 2006, Civic Ventures awarded Goode a $100,000 Purpose Prize for his leadership of Amachi and the Philadelphia Inquirer named him Citizen of the Year. With experience learned in developing local Amachi programs, BBBS affiliates throughout the nation have built a more diverse pool of mentors and have expanded their services in low-income neighborhoods.
- Amachi began with pilot sites in Philadelphia and Chester, PA in 2000-2001; within three years, in part through assistance from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, there were twenty-two sites in operation. After having seen Amachi in action, President George W. Bush proposed a Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) program in his 2003 State of the Union address. Today, about $52 million annually in federal, state and private funds support 250 MCP programs, the majority of which either are formally affiliated with Amachi or have received training from the Amachi Training Institute. More than 6,000 churches have provided mentors.
For more information, read the full Amachi Program Profile, which includes background on the program, why this was of interest to the Casey Foundation, and our return on investment. Also, Rev. Dr. Wilson Goode, Sr., Amachi director, and Marie Gilliam, Amachi "little sister," discuss the program In Their Own Words.
Contact:
Amachi
www.amachimentoring.org