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| Program seeks mentors to help inmates' children |
| By Fort Worth Star-Telegram |
| Published: 09/19/2003 |
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Officials with Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas are appealing for volunteers to mentor the children of incarcerated parents and break the cycle of harm that prison causes families. The Amachi Program, established in Philadelphia in 2001 to match adults with inmates' children, is expanding to 10 more cities nationwide, with a Texas launch in the Metroplex. Former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode was in Fort Worth on Wednesday to help install the program and to tour Carswell Federal Medical Center, the nation's only women's federal prison hospital. More than 150 applications for mentors were taken during the tour, many from women with more than one child, officials said. The Amachi Program is expected to serve more than 300 children in the region by March 2004. Amachi is a West African word for 'Who knows what God has brought us through this child.' 'Many people for a long time have paid attention to inmates, but it's been only a few years where people have paid attention to their children,' Goode said. An estimated 70,000 North Texas children have an incarcerated parent, and 58 percent of those children are younger than 10, Bureau of Justice Statistics data show. About 25 percent of Texas inmates are from Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Grayson and Dallas counties. Texas has the second-highest number of inmates in the nation, with more than 148,000 people in Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities. Without a positive adult in their lives, many of the children will wind up in prison themselves, officials said. 'They want what's best for their children, but they feel helpless,' Goode said. Most inmates' children live with a grandparent, although some stay with a friend or a spouse of the inmate, said Monica Recktenwald, hospital spokeswoman. Charles Pierson, chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas, mentors a 10-year-old boy whose father was convicted of murder. 'He's a young man of tremendous potential who faces some big challenges,' Pierson said. 'He recognizes that his father has made some significant mistakes but has said that he will not make the same mistakes that his father did.' Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas has more than 1,500 children on its waiting list, but the Amachi Program is an opportunity to connect with people in the church, a volunteer reservoir that has not been tapped, Pierson said. Barry Anderson, Texas Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service chairman, said churches are not doing all they need to do. |
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