Partnering Senior Corps Programs with Programs

1. Partnering Senior Corps ProgramswithPrograms that MENTOR CHILDREN OF PRISONERS

2. CNCS Strategic Initiative Highlights • Harnessing Baby Boomers’ Experience • Baby Boomers are a highly talented, highly motivated group that could drive solutions to some of our most intractable social problems • Ensuring a Brighter Future for All of America’s Youth • Youth who grow up in severely distressed communities need support from caring adults

3. CNCS Targets for 2010 • Harnessing Baby Boomers’ Experience • Engage 500,000 Baby Boomers in Corporation-sponsored national service programs as participants and recruited volunteers • Ensuring a Brighter Future for All of America’s Youth • Provide mentoring and other support and services to 100,000 children of prisoners

4. Connecting with Baby Boomers • Where are the Baby Boomers? • Faith-based organizations • Community-based organizations • How can Baby Boomers help? • Volunteer as mentors for children with incarcerated parents

5. WORKSHOP GOALS • Learn how to fulfill two strategic initiatives through partnerships with programs that mentor children of incarcerated parents • Harness Baby Boomers’ Experience by recruiting them to mentor children • Ensure a Brighter Future for All of America’s Youth by providing disadvantaged youth with mentors

6. WORKSHOP GOALSCont’d • Identify programs in your community that mentor children of prisoners • Find partners that deliver high quality services • Coordinate roles and responsibilities with the mentoring programs and station staff around volunteer screening training and supervision

7. Introducing Amachi • Founded September 2000 • Meaning of Amachi: • “Who knows but what God has brought us through this child.” (Nigerian Ibo) • “To carry more than two children on your back.” (Alaskan Yupic)

8. The Amachi Model • Is faith based and rooted in a partnership between a reputable, well-established, secular non-profit agency or faith based non-profit and local faith organizations • Is based on the Big Brothers Big Sisters model of one-on-one community-based mentoring • Is performance based and has a strong monitoring component to ensure quality control • Is research-based

9. Amachi Models Across The Country 116 Amachi modeled agencies • 36 states and Washington D.C. • 93 cities

10. Children of Prisoners • More than 2 million children have an incarcerated parent, from 500,000 children in 1991. “Incarcerated Parents and Their Children”, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, August 2000) • On any give day 7.3 million children have a parent in prison or under state or federal supervision. Bureauof JusticeStatistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2003)

11. Children of Prisoners: The Facts • Up to 10% of the children of prisoners are in a foster home or institution. (BJS, 1992) • 90% of children with an incarcerated father live with their mothers. (BJS, 2000) • 50% of children with an incarcerated mother live with their grandmothers. (BJS, 2000)

12. Identifying programs in your community • Know your role in and value to the program and partner • Know key players who can help you make the right connections

13. Know your role in and value to the program and partner • Seniors are often cornerstones of community organizations that serve vulnerable children and families. • As a stable, mature group of volunteers, Senior Corps volunteers can serve as advocates, nurturers, and role models for children who need stability and consistency. • Seniors often have more flexibility, time and attention available. • Removed a generation from the parents and professionals involved with children of incarcerated parents, elder mentors can give the “concern without conditions” children often feel in the presence of grandparents.

14. Ideas for Identifying Programs in Your Area • Review example programs given in this workshop • Find partners that deliver high quality services • Coordinate roles and responsibilities with the mentoring program and station staff around volunteer screening, training and supervision • Assess the volunteer fit: Find the right Senior Corps volunteers to work with the children of incarcerated parents.

15. Key Partners In the Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative. This federal effort has established or expanded hundreds of local-level mentoring programs around the country to focus on children of incarcerated parents. Visit the website: www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fbci/progs/fbci_mcp.html • Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) programs. Widely recognized as the nation’s most established and widespread mentoring program, Big Brothers Big Sisters is also a key partner in the Amachi project, which uses faith-based volunteer settings as the vehicle for mentoring children of incarcerated parents. Visit the website: www.bbbsa.org • Collaborations between Senior Corps and AmeriCorps *VISTA. Senior Corps is collaborating closely with AmeriCorps *VISTA to assist programs that mentor children of incarcerated parents. AmeriCorps*VISTA members build capacity and generate community volunteers to support the effort, and Senior volunteers provide a base of mentors. Download a summary of how Senior Corps grantees have responded to the President's Mentoring Initiative at: www.nationalserviceresources.org/initiatives/mentoring_children_of_prisoners/index.php • Statewide and Local Mentoring Partnerships. These umbrella organizations currently organize and coordinate local mentoring efforts in 23 states and 15 urban communities around the country. They are a good place to find out which programs may be serving children of incarcerated parents in your community. For partnerships in your area, check: www.mentoring.org/state_partnerships/state_local_profiles.adp

16. Potential Partners in Your Area: • Schools Though most schools do not maintain data on which children have incarcerated parents, the children themselves (or their caregivers) often alert teachers or other school staff. Foster Grandparent Programs, especially, may be in a good position to work with partner schools on referrals and other support. • Faith organizations and congregations Ask about those with a history of prison outreach and ministry. Many of these programs are expanding to mentor children of incarcerated parents. • Local youth mentoring agencies Grassroots mentoring efforts and established youth mentoring programs are receiving grants to mentor children of incarcerated parents. Check State and Local Partnerships in the appendix. • State, county, and municipal correctional systems These public entities help network programs that serve families with an incarcerated parent. They are a valuable source of available supports in local areas. Check the Government pages in your local phone book for contacts. • Family court and foster care systems. Many children of incarcerated parents live in foster care or other care giving situations. Social workers and other individuals, such as Court Appointed Special Advocates, make referrals to these programs. As a result, they will often know if there is a program in your area. See Government pages in your local phone book for contact information.

17. WHAT MAKES PARTNERSHIPS WORK? 1. Favorable climate Having the support of persons who control resources and the general public for collaborative processes, viewing them as reliable and competent means of achieving community goals. 2. Ability to compromise Members of the collaborative share understanding and respect for each others (methods of operation, preferences, cultural norms and values, etc.) and believe involvement in the group to be beneficial. Thus, all parties are motivated to compromise on decisions, putting the greater good ahead of the agenda of any single participating organization. 3. Parties share a stake in the process and outcome Members of the collaborative take ownership of both the group procedures and its outcomes. 4. Balanced participation Every level within each partner organization has at least some representation and ongoing involvement in the collaborative initiatives. 5. Flexibility Members of the group remain open to adaptations of its organizational processes and means of accomplishing its work. 6. Communication, Communication, Communication By whatever means possible, productive communication is encouraged – in scheduled meetings, through updates, by open discussion, by establishing of personal connections outside of the formal channels. 7. Mutual goals and objectives Goals and objectives are realistic and clear to all partners. 8. Shared vision Partners agree upon their mission, goals, approaches, strategies either at the outset or as the collaborative develops. 9. Sufficient funds, staff, material and time An adequate financial base, staff and materials are needed to support operations. Also, the group needs a realistic estimate of time and efficient time management for nurturing the collaboration and achieving goals. 10. Skilled leadership The respect of the collaborative partners is granted to the individual who seems capable of organizational and interpersonal skills in addition to fairness in moving the process along toward mutual goals.

18. Then WHAT????? Once you’ve determined who is doing what in your area, assess whether a particular program is a good fit with the goals of Senior Corps and your volunteers.

19. Refining the Partnership Once you have identified the program and determined the fit, next you’ll want to: • Flush-out specifics • Clarify roles and responsibilities between you as a project sponsor and the mentor program. • Create a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that is formalized with the volunteer station