A Guide to Building Mentor Programs for Children of Prisoners

Building from the Ground Up: Creating Effective Programs to Mentor Children of Prisoners, the Amachi Model, by W. Wilson Goode Sr. and Thomas J. Smith, draws on lessons learned from the Amachi program, a collaborative effort of Public/Private Ventures now operating in 38 states. The guide says careful planning is key to creating strong programs: Before starting a new program, nonprofit and government leaders should consider its size, structure, location, message, organizations it can collaborate with, and potential for support. The guide also discusses how to overcome such challenges as volunteers’ hesitancy to work with children who have an incarcerated parent, and a lack of information about eligible children. The guide concludes with advice on handing clients and managing the programs, as well as dealing with communications, evaluation, and other aspects of running a mentor program.

Publisher: Public/Private Ventures, 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; (215) 557-4400; fax (215) 557-4469; http://www.ppv.org; 46 pages; $10 or free for download on the publisher’s Web site.