Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Maryland – Amachi Mentoring Program

In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of children in the United States whose parents are incarcerated. According to a February 2008 study by the Urban Institute, the number of children with a parent in prison increased by 50 percent between 1991 and 1999. A December 2007 report by the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children estimated that 26,000 Maryland children have experienced parental incarceration. Many incarcerated parents are serving lengthy sentences – with an average sentence of 80 months – and the majority are repeat offenders. Thus, the disruption to the parent-child relationship may be both long-term and repeated.

A parent’s incarceration can be devastating for a child, undermining the child’s emotional, psychological, developmental, and financial well-being. The child may experience feelings of shame, anger, guilt, and/or depression because of the parent’s incarceration. As a result, the child may act out inappropriately or perform poorly in school. Moreover, children of incarcerated parents are at very high risk for engaging in criminal behavior themselves. According to a U.S. Senate report, children of incarcerated parents are six times more likely than other children to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. These children need the support and guidance of a caring, responsible adult to help them negotiate the challenges of childhood and adolescence. Although a mentor obviously cannot take the place of a parent in a child’s life, research has shown that mentors can make a tangible difference in the lives of young people.

In 2004, with funding from The Abell Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Maryland (BBBS) launched a new mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents called the Amachi program. Through partnerships with congregations, faith-based organizations, the Baltimore City Police Department and businesses, the Amachi program has recruited hundreds of adult volunteers to serve as mentors. In addition, BBBS has worked closely with the Maryland Department of Public Safety to conduct outreach to incarcerated parents and encourage them to enroll their children in the Amachi program – an innovative partnership that has been recognized as a national model by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that funds mentoring programs for children of prisoners.

In the program’s first four years, BBBS matched over 800 children of prisoners with volunteer mentors. Surveys of mentors, parents, and teachers indicate that children enrolled in the program have made significant progress in both personal growth and academic achievement. Of children matched with mentors for more than one year, more than three-quarters showed improvement in academic performance and classroom behavior, and more than 90 percent showed improvements in self confidence and relationships with adults. Moreover, a review of data from the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services showed that 90 percent of children in the program had no arrests during their first twelve months as mentees: an impressive accomplishment given the fact that this is a population at high risk for involvement in the criminal justice system.