Mentoring Children of Prisoners
In January 2002, President George W. Bush signed a bill expanding the Safe and Stable Families Program (Public Law 107–133), which included authorization for a mentoring program for children of prisoners; and, in his 2003 State of the Union Address, he proposed a $150 million initiative that would bring mentors to 100,000 of these children.
Since then, the Family and Youth Services Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been funding community- and faith-based organizations to provide mentors to children and youth with incarcerated parents.
According to a U.S. Senate Report, children of prisoners are six times more likely than other children to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. Without effective intervention strategies, as many as 70 percent of these children will become involved with the criminal justice system.
Read more about this topic: Youth Mentoring
Famous quotes containing the words mentoring, children and/or prisoners:
“Never be intimidated when you deal with men. Curse, don’t cry.”
—Anonymous, U.S. professional woman. As quoted in Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment, ch. 4, by Mary Niles Maack and Joanne Passet (1994)
“Nurturing competence, the food of self-esteem, comes from acknowledging and appreciating the positive contributions your children make. By catching our kids doing things right, we bring out the good that is already there.”
—Stephanie Martson (20th century)
“Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)