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Mentoring Children of Promise Program
(MCP)
The Council of the Southern Mountains
P.O. Box 85
Northfork, WV 24895 For information or to refer a child, call sharon Laxton at 862-3144.
The Council of the Southern Mountains, a community action agency, has developed a mentoring program for children with an incarcerated parent or parents residing in the State of West Virginia. The Mentoring Children of Promise Program (MCP) strives to provide community based one-on-one mentoring to children aged four through seventeen (4-17) ( age four (4) if within three (3) months of their fifth (5) birthday), regardless of their income, ethnicity, sex, or disability. The program targeted McDowell, Wyoming and Raleigh Counties in the first year and received funding from the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office.
The Mentoring Children of Promise Program will provide mentoring services to children with incarcerated parents in 8 southern Counties of West Virginia. Children who are enrolled in the program will be provided community based one-on-one mentoring services aimed to prevent the children following the examples of their parents. The Mentors will be volunteers that must pass a criminal background check before joining the program and then they will complete an orientation and training session. Each mentor will spend at least one hour per week with their assigned mentee, with a minimum of 52 hours per year, providing the mentee with a positive role model and meaningful community interactions. The program will also offer service to the child’s family by providing training, a support group and referral services as needed.
The program will operate statewide in conjunction with the Senior Corp Directors Association to ensure effective distribution of service implementation, supervision and Q-STAR evaluation through an impartial advisory board
Mission Statement
The Mentoring Children of Promise Program provides positive role models and positive cultural interventions for youth age 4-17 with an incarcerated parent or parents to encourage them to break the cycle of imprisonment so these children may have improved social, educational, and vocational life experiences and lessen the burden on society.
Statement of West Virginia Need
There are approximately 34,250 children living in the state of West Virginia with at least one parent incarcerated in the State justice system. This number must be enlarged to include the children living in the state of West Virginia with a parent incarcerated in the federal justice system. It is estimated that half of all federal prisoners have a child under the age of eighteen.
It is reported that children with a parent incarcerated are:
• more likely to develop attachment disorders and often exhibit broad varieties of behavior, emotional, health, and educational difficulties.
• are angry and lash out at others due to the absence of positive role models in their lives.
• It has been estimated that 70 percent of children who have an incarcerated parent will become incarcerated themselves.
• At the present time there is no program that has been implemented in the State of West Virginia to assist the 34,250 plus children with incarcerated parents. These children have suffered in silence because of the stigma and shame that is attached to having a parent in prison.
With an overwhelmed criminal justice system and child protection system a program is needed to prevent the inevitable high number of these children being themselves incarcerated in the future. As matters of consideration:
• It costs approximately $34,000 thousand a year to house a juvenile offender per year and millions to house an inmate that is incarcerated for life. Providing mentor services to the 34,250 plus children will save millions of dollars in the future.
• The benefits provided to the children who receive mentoring services include: reduction in drug and alcohol use, improved school performance and attendance, reduced incidence of violence, improved self-confidence, a greater hope for the future and improved academic performance and classroom behavior.
• The benefits provided to the volunteer include: improved health, increased productivity, personal gratification, and a belief that they are making a difference.
• The benefits to the community are: safer streets, better schools, reduced costs and an improved quality of life for the entire community.
| .Project Description
The Mentoring Children of Promise Program will provide community based one-on-one mentoring to children with at least one parent incarcerated in the state or federal correctional system residing in the state of West Virginia. The children, ages 4-17, enrolled in the program will be matched with a mentor who will spend quality time with them. The mentors will be volunteers who have passed a CIB background check and will have attended the program’s orientation and training session before being matched with a mentee. The mentor will take the mentee to community activities to providing opportunities for social interaction, while providing healthy messages about life and social behavior.
Goals/Outcomes
Goal 1: To provide mentoring services to 1,000 children with an incarcerated
parent residing in the state of West Virginia.
Objective 1: To hire staff and recruit volunteers to implement the mentoring
program.
Objective 2: The mentor/mentee match will be completed after the mentor
receives orientation and mentoring technique training and the
mentor/mentee match have had a meeting facilitated by the program
and one independent meeting.
Objective 3: Volunteers will provide at least one hour a week mentoring services for
a duration of at least one year.
Outcome 1: One thousand children will receive 48,000 hours of volunteer mentor
service hours annually.
Goal 2: To provide referral services to at least 4,000 children with an
incarcerated parent residing in the State of West Virginia.
Objective 1: The MCP program will provide referrals to mental health agencies for
children enrolled in the program and for children unable to enroll in the
program.
Objective 2: The MCP program will provide referrals to social agencies for children
enrolled in the program and for children unable to enroll in the program.
Objective 3: The MCP program will provide referrals to other agencies for children
enrolled in the program and for children unable to enroll in the program.
Outcome 1: Children enrolled in the program will receive referrals for other services
as needed. Children not enrolled will receive referrals to appropriate agencies.
Goal 3: To provide support services to the enrolled child’s family.
Objective 1: The MCP program will offer a monthly caregiver support meeting for
the parents/guardians of the children enrolled in the program.
Objective 2: The MCP program will provide referrals for the parents/guardians of the
children enrolled in the program as needed.
Objective 3: The MCP program will provide parent training classes for the parents/
guardians of the children enrolled in the program.
Outcome 1: The parents/guardians of the children enrolled in the program will
have a support system.
Outcome 2: The parents/guardians of the children enrolled in the program will
attain better parental skills as measured by post-tests and self-reporting.
Goal 4: To connect the child enrolled in the Mentoring Children of Promise
program with their incarcerated parent.
Objective 1: The Mentoring Children of Promise program will provide the
opportunity and means for the mentees to send correspondence to the
incarcerated parent.
Objective 2: The Mentoring Children of Promise program will provide the children in
the program with a picture annually to send to their incarcerated parent.
Outcome 1: The child enrolled in the Mentoring Children of Promise program will
have the opportunity to correspond with their incarcerated parent.
Program Evaluation
The Mentoring Children of Promise Program will be evaluated by the performance measurement instruments developed by the Senior Corp Program. The program, Project STAR, will allow the MCP program to evaluate the outcomes of the services offered to the children. A statewide advisory evaluation Board will be developed to ensure impartial program evaluation.
| The Council of the Southern Mountains is seeking to lead a statewide program to stop the cycle of incarceration that affects seventy percent of children with one or more parents in the correction system. The “Mentoring Children of Promise Program” will provide mentoring services to children with incarcerated parents in all 55 counties of West Virginia, based on a pilot program presently operating in McDowell, Wyoming and Raleigh Counties.
Youth identified for the program will be provided community based one-on-one mentoring services aimed to prevent the children following the examples of their parents. The Mentors will be volunteers that must pass a criminal background check before joining the program and then they will complete an orientation and training session. Each mentor will spend at least one hour per week with their assigned child, with a minimum of 52 hours per year, providing the youth with a positive role model and meaningful community interactions. The program will also offer service to the child’s family by providing training, a support group and referral services as needed.
With the prison system one of the fastest growing areas in West Virginia, interventions must be initiated to decrease the ever increasing numbers of inmates and costs to our State. These interventions, such as the “Mentoring Children of Promise Program” will provide hope for both the targeted children, to stop the cycle of incarceration, and our society as a whole.
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