Mentoring
Children of Prisoners
President Bush, in his 2003 and 2004 State of the Union
address, asked the nation to reach out and help the
more than 1.5 million American children with a parent
or parents in prison.
According to national statistics, 59 percent of these
children are under the age of ten. Most of these children
grow up without the benefits of the guidance from a
reliable adult in their lives. In fact, a U.S. Senate
report indicates that without appropriate modeling from
a responsible adult, these children are six times more
likely than other children to become incarcerated at
some point in their lives.
Because this is such a critical issue for our society
at large, the Corporation for National and Community
Service (Corporation) is responding to the President's
request. Through its Faith-Based and Community Initiative,
the Corporation is working with faith-based and small
community organizations to provide services related
to mentoring children of inmates, as well as gang and
youth intervention and ex-offender and reentry activities.
Several programs of the Corporation—AmeriCorps,
AmeriCorps*VISTA, and Senior Corps—are encouraging
their programs to develop new opportunities that serve
children of prisoners.
The Resource Center offers the following
resources to support the Corporation’s Mentoring
Children of Prisoners efforts:
• Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), a T/TA provider to the Corporation for National and Community Service, offers support and publications for national service programs involved in mentoring children of prisoners.
• Troop 1500 is an inspiring video available from our lending library.
• Faith Community and Criminal Justice Collaboration: A Collection of Effective Programs
This collection of programs looks at how people of faith work with or
in criminal justice institutions to reconcile, restore, and nurture
individuals back into families and communities.
• Family and Corrections Network offers 19 free pamphlets for people serving children of prisoners.
| NEW! Performance Measurement Packet for Youth Mentoring Programs
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• Supporting
Children of Inmates Senior Corps Highlights
(PDF, 113K): Senior Corps has encouraged all of its grantees to develop
volunteer service opportunities that support and help sustain the
children whose parents are incarcerated. Senior Corps also asked the project directors
to share
their accomplishment/best practices, which are shared in this document.
• Mentoring Children of
Prisoners Grantee Profiles (PDF, 312K): Project descriptions of winners
of the FY 2003 Mentoring of Children
of Prisoners
grant competition.
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