2010 MCP Grant Resources

Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP)

GENERAL OVERVIEW

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Funding Authority: The original statutory authority for MCP came as part of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program Amendments in 2001. The most recent reauthorization for the project was via an amendment to the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (P.L. 109 – 288) which allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants for this program.

Funding Agency: Awards are made by the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB). You will see the acronyms ACF and FYSB throughout the FOA and in technical assistance offerings. As the funding agency, FYSB is responsible for the grant review process and monitoring programs once approved for funding.

Purpose of Program: The purpose of the program is to create quality, lasting, one-on-one relationships that provide young people with caring role models for future success. For the purposes of MCP, the target population is identified as Children of Prisoners rather than the general youth population.

Scope of Services: Organizations may utilize the awarded funding to create, maintain and monitor mentoring relationships between screened and trained adult mentors and children of prisoners. This program has several clear distinctions from other mentoring efforts.

·         The program is for children of prisoners only (see below under eligible youth and families).

·         The program requires one-on-one rather than group mentoring activities.

·         The program is for community-based mentoring, i.e., activities take place in parks, playgrounds, recreation facilities etc., rather than as part of a structured activity as part of a larger social endeavor.

·         The activities are not school based or based on a specific curriculum to improve academics or life skills. The activities are decided on by agreement between the mentor, the mentee and the host agency.

·         The program requires collaboration with organizations and federally funded resources (TANF, Foster Care, Social Services, Education Institutions, etc.) to identify eligible youth and to meet needs that fall outside the scope of services.

 

Eligible Youth and Families: Eligible youth are ages 4 up to the age of 18 and have one or both parents incarcerated in a Federal or State Correctional facility or in a local facility IF remanded there by a Federal or State Court. The match must be initiated while the parent is incarcerated. Documentation of eligibility of each program participant (mentee) must be maintained.

Need for the Program – General Statistics:

There is clear and convincing evidence that children of incarcerated parents are at increased risk for disengagement, behavior issues, academic challenges, substance abuse and criminal activity. These youth are also creative problem solvers who need positive interventions to build on these strengths.

  • Information from one study on children in foster care with parents in prison provides the following data:
    • 25% of children live with their fathers when a mother goes to prison
    • 90% of children remain with their mothers when the father is incarcerated
    • 50% of children with an incarcerated mother live with their grandmothers
    • In the child welfare system, 1 in 10 children in in-home settings is living with someone who is on probation.
    • 1 in 5 children with incarcerated parents had clinically significant, internalizing problems (e.g., anxiousness, depression, withdrawal)
    • 1 in 3 had clinically significant externalizing problems (e.g., attention problems, aggression, disruptive behaviors).

 http://fcnetwork.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/fact-sheet.pdf

  • There are an estimated 1.7 million children - who have a father or mother serving a sentence in a state or federal prison (Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ222984. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, Glaze, Lauren E. and Laura M. Maruschak, 2008).
  • Between 1995 and 2005, the number of incarcerated women in the United States increased by 57 percent compared to an increase of 34 percent for men (Prisoners in 2005, Bureau of Justice Statistics).
  • African-American children are nearly nine times more likely and Hispanic children are three times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
  • Sixty-three percent of federal prisoners and 55 percent of state prisoners are parents of children under age 18 (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
  • Sixty-three percent of federal prisoners and 55 percent of state prisoners are parents of children under age 18 (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
  • Parental incarceration creates financial instability and material hardship as well as instability in family relationships and structure (Parental Incarceration in Fragile Families: Summary of Three Year Findings, an unpublished report to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007).
  • An estimated 7.3 million children have a parent in prison or under some form of state or federal supervision (Families Left Behind: The Hidden Costs of Incarceration and Reentry, Urban Institute Justice Policy Center, rev. 2005).
  • Some 10 million young people in the United States have had a mother or father-or both-spend time behind bars at some point in their lives (Partnerships between Corrections and Child Welfare, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007).
  • Seventy-five percent of incarcerated women are mothers (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
  • The average age of children with an incarcerated parent is eight years old; 22 percent of the children are under the age of five (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
  • More than 60 percent of offenders in state and federal prisons in the United States are incarcerated more than 100 miles from their last place of residence (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
  • Having an incarcerated parent often results in school behavior and performance problems as well as social and institutional stigma and shame (Vulnerability of Children of Incarcerated Addict Mothers: Implications for Preventive Intervention, Children and Youth Services Review, 2005).
  • In addition to lowering the likelihood of recidivism among incarcerated parents, there is evidence that maintaining the child-parent relationship while a parent is incarcerated improves a child's emotional response to the incarceration and encourages parent-child attachment (Examining the Effect of Incarceration and In-Prison Family Contact on Prisoners' Family Relationships, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 2005).

 

Does the Program make a Difference in the lives of children of incarcerated parents? Studies of mentoring relationships show that the length of the mentoring relationship correlates with increased positive outcomes. The focus of MCP is to create mentor/mentee matches that have the greatest potential of lasting at least one year. Research also indicates that when mentoring relationships terminate early (within the first 3 months), mentees may actually experience detrimental effects and suffer declines in self-esteem and confidence. Families participating in MCP projects experience increased support for youth which is a critical element to alleviating some stress factors for the non-incarcerated parents or caregivers.

 

How can an MCP Program Impact the community? Quotes from existing grantees participating in a 2010 survey tell the story…

“The impact the MCP Project has had on our community is significant, especially from the perspective of sustained matches. A vast majority of our matches last longer than a year, with several having lasted as long as four years. As a result, children who are being mentored are being impacted positively with the potential of life changing behaviors. Also, the level of community awareness related to the number of children impacted by incarceration has increased significantly.”

“We have helped catalyze community change in awareness and response to the impact of incarceration on children and families. We spearheaded a community task force to begin addressing the justice system, from arrest through parole, and begin to implement more child-centered practices and policies.”

“Our MCP program is still very young (almost six months and counting!) but the community reception has been very positive and supportive. I think MCP provides a forum for adults who perhaps previously wanted to make a difference or play a support role in the life of an eligible child but lacked the training or structured forum to do so. It's also prompted community dialogue about our system of criminal justice in general and its effects on children in our community. Interestingly, some of our mentor recruits had experienced incarceration of a close family member in childhood, and topics discussed during the mentor training helped them identify and address issues from their past. Very Cool!”

 

What should be considered before applying for a MCP grant?            

·        Does your organization specialize or seek to specialize to services in this population?

·        Are you already conducting mentoring activities and wish to expand to include another target population rather than support general mentoring for youth?

·        Does your organization have the capacity to access the required match (25% of total approved project costs in years one and two and 50% for year 3)?

·        Does your organization have the infrastructure or formal collaborative relationships in place to respond to needs of families of incarcerated children that fall outside the scope of services authorized for MCP?

·        Is there concrete evidence of an existing group of eligible youth and families and energy within the community to reach out through mentoring activities or are you assuming the need is present?

 

Supported by FYSB

 

FYSB

FYSB is an agency within the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.


Administered by MANY

 

MANYMid-Atlantic Network of Youth and Family Services