Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP)
Elements of a Quality MCP Program
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Funding Agency (Family and Youth Services Bureau) Expectations:
This document outlines each of the FYSB expectations for organizations participating as MCP grantees. All MCP funded services of the grantee must be directed toward meeting the Purpose and Scope of Services as authorized by Congress. The chart below outlines common program activities. Greater detail about these items can be found in the accompanying text. This information does not supercede published requirements that may be included in the 2010 MCP Funding Opportunity Announcements.
Understanding the Purpose of the MCP Program: The purpose of the MCP Program is to create quality, lasting, one-on-one relationships that provide children of incarcerated parents with caring role models for future success. Activities are to be community-based and occur at least one hour per week on a weekly basis.
Following the Mission – Not the Money: It is easy to understand the struggles of local programs to survive in the current economic and competitive climate. Any funding opportunity is reviewed for a “fit” – even one that is less than perfect. However, the requirements of the MCP Program and the potential benefits to all participants deserve and require organizational commitment at a deep level. If the MCP Program isn’t a match for your mission, the challenge will be difficult if not impossible. If your organization is simply looking to make a difference in your community, MCP funding may be a logical fit if the services required are within your organizational capacity and if you can demonstrate the need in your community for such services. If your organization already offers mentoring services, MCP can seem like a perfect fit. It is important to remember that children and families of incarcerated parents have unique needs and mentors associated with these youth require additional training and support in order to create a lasting relationship. It is critical for existing mentoring organizations to create specific plans for success for the MCP project rather than relying on the point that “we serve these youth anyway so this just helps us serve more.” While this may be true, activities funded by the MCP Program must be clearly distinct and meet all regulations during progress monitoring.
Abiding by the Scope of Services: All FYSB MCP grantees are required to assure that all funding is used within the allowed Scope of Service for the project. These services include activities designed to create and support mentoring relationships including: recruiting, screening and training volunteer mentors; identifying and recruiting eligible children of prisoners within the community; matching mentors and mentees based on preferences of the mentor, mentee and caregiver(s); and, providing supervision and monitoring to the match to ensure satisfaction and to address any issues regarding the match in timely and effective ways.
It is tempting to force MCP required services into existing mentoring endeavors and this almost always results in frustration for the grantee and for the project officer and technical assistance team. MCP Programs may not use Group Mentoring as an alternative to individual activities and the program is not based on academic or life-skills curricula. The match activities are community-based, one-on-one experiences and must be created and supported as such.
Serving Eligible Youth and Families: The target population for the MCP Program are youth, ages 4 up to 18, who have at least one parent incarcerated in a Federal or State correctional institution or in a local correction facility if so remanded by a State or Federal court. The match is valid if is made while the parent is incarcerated, even if it continues after the parent’s release. The importance of this expectation cannot be overemphasized and the belief that such youth and families exist in sufficient quantities within your community to warrant an MCP Program should drive the organization’s decision to apply for funding. Grantees must serve the full age range identified in the FOA. Should a grantee propose to serve a subset of the age range they must demonstrate how the remaining ages will be served in their community.
Establishing Lasting Mentor/Mentee Matches: The success of a match often begins before the match is even made. Model programs clearly assess the strengths, interests and availability of potential mentors. The program also assesses the developmental levels, strengths and interests of each child and the involved caregiver (s). Once the potential match is identified, a pre-match meeting can be helpful to allow all participants to meet, engage and then respond, individually, on the initial perceptions. Even children as young as 4 can demonstrate connection and interest and older youth can and will be vocal as long as they feel that their opinion matters. Once the match is made regular check-ins for satisfaction and to address any challenge are required elements and are often missed because of the emphasis on making new matches. Quality is more important than quantity and FYSB recognizes and appreciates the importance and long term benefits of lasting matches.
Utilizing Existing and Establishing Formal Collaborations: No model MCP Program can do everything all by itself. It is critical to demonstrate that meaningful collaborations are in place. Expectations are that formal agreements for service linkages for employment, skills training, family emergency issues, mental health services and other needs are in place to assist families when necessary. As these activities fall outside the scope of the MCP Program, the existing of such collaborations are important to ensuring that the family issues do not overshadow the match; drain staff resources; overwhelm the mentor; and, ultimately result in a terminated match. Model programs have current, written and clearly worded agreements about when and under what circumstances services will be available to participating families.
Demonstration of efforts to achieve Cultural Competency in Program Activities and Outreach efforts: Efforts to achieve cultural competency in outreach, engagement with community members and service provision is a never ending and ever changing requirement for organizations. The need to be responsive to racial, ethnic, socio-economic, religious, language, developmental, educational, LGBTQ, physical ability differences and others is an essential element of success in matches and in service delivery. Cultural competency extends past the need for annual training. All elements of the MCP Program, including outreach materials, engagement with youth and families and efforts to provide services must be seen through a lens that emphasizes the strengths inherent in being different than your neighbor. Cultural competency doesn’t necessarily rely on matching like with like but with taking needs and preferences into consideration and making offers that are sensitive to those elements. Model Programs engage members of all applicable populations within the community, including youth and parents, to serve in an advisory capacity as the program creates, implements and evaluates program services. Remember that having bilingual staff is insufficient as a measure of cultural competency if different groups do not understand that they are welcome and how to go about accessing services.
Demonstration of Recognition of Barriers to Services and Efforts to Address within Program Parameters: All communities and social service providers face barriers to implementing program plans and providing services. This is a function of ever changing dynamics within the community and the target population. Recognizing barriers begins with discussion in the initial application for funding and it is in the application that you address potential solutions to these barriers. Model Programs embrace barriers as an opportunity to be creative and reach out in different ways. However, this is only possible if barriers are tracked, analyzed and discussed by service providers and the community. Utilizing technical assistance and informing FYSB project officers of these barriers and plans to address them demonstrate the confidence of the organization in meeting challenges in efforts to provide required services at the levels committed to within the approved grant.
Realistic Program Expectations: When writing a grant, it is a common and tempting mistake to overestimate outputs and outcomes. This mistake comes with the pressure to achieve funding. Successful programs understand that the approved grant is a commitment. The grant serves as the basis of a contract between the organization and the funding authority. Informed programs can estimate numbers of matches with some degree of confidence and understand how to address challenges, when they arise, in efforts to meet service targets. Programs that guess at the need and the availability of mentors and the willingness of youth and families to participate may lock themselves into the pressure of defending the number and working to accomplish service measures that might well be impossible for the community being served. This is an important issue for the funder in that FYSB is also under pressure to meet national service targets. Fewer, quality matches and a well run program is more of a success than a program that continually falls short of expectations and does not have the capacity to change community factors that were not considered previous to or during the application phase of the process. Setting realistic program expectations will ensure you are meeting your grant goals around mentor/mentee matches.
Documented Activities Regarding Identification and Enrollment of Eligible Children of Incarcerated Parents: The foundation of any successful MCP Program is the capacity to identify eligible youth and families AND to enroll these youth and families in MCP activities. Model programs can implement and demonstrate varied outreach efforts and partnerships with referral sources that can exist in making connections to eligible families. Such activities must be documented and should be included in regular process evaluation efforts from both a provider and referral perspective. Eligible youth and families have the right to choose not to enroll in available services. The MCP Program’s responsibility is to help these youth and families understand the availability of services and the potential benefits so that they can be supported in making an informed choice. Model Programs also understand that a youth that is not ready at age 5 may be completely ready at age 7. Programs seek to maintain open and sensitive communication with families that turn down services initially.
Mentor Recruitment, Screening, Training and Retention Efforts: FYSB expectations in this area include clear documentation of the methods used to identify and recruit mentors who understand the program and the needs of the population. Evidence of thorough screening methods and safety precautions help programs succeed in keeping participants safe. Model training plans include orientation prior to selection; pre-service training; and, post-match opportunities to enhance skills. The availability of such training and support can enhance mentor satisfaction and longevity with the MCP Program.
Accurate and Representative Federal Funding and Progress Reports: Each grantee is required to submit financial and program progress reports on a regular basis and to participate in online data collection efforts. In times of challenge, it is important to utilize these reports as methods for communicating program efforts to address barriers that may impact output and outcome data. This can be a frightening proposition for programs unfamiliar with the Federal process. For these programs it may seem as if no news is good news and that only good news is desired. The worst case scenario is when reports are all positive and a site monitoring visit provides evidence to the contrary. FYSB project officers understand communities and that challenges can and do arise. Efforts to overcome these challenges can make programs stronger and more effective. The acknowledgement that challenges exist is the exact reason why FYSB provides financial support to the MCP Support Center.
Engagement with and Active Responses to Training and Technical Assistance Offerings: FYSB provides financial support to the MCP Support Center. The Center serves as your one-stop resource for all matters related to applying for and operating an MCP Program. Successful programs understand and embrace the value of technical assistance and training and emphasize these activities in program plans. The MCP Support Center website can be viewed at:
http://members.mcpsupport.com/default.aspx
or you can reach the Support Center at the number and e-mail address below:
MCP Support Center at 1.866.MCP.1133 or
mcpsupportcenter@manynet.org.
Supported by FYSB
FYSB is an agency within the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Administered by MANY
Mid-Atlantic Network of Youth and Family Services