The highly successful Amachi program has expanded beyond the City of Brotherly Love to all 50 states and Canada under the leadership of former Philadelphia Mayor Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode Sr. “It is in a sense an international program and the purpose of the Amachi program is what it does … find a loving caring adult to mentor one child for one hour, once a week for at least one year. And the four hours per month [are] found to change the direction of a child’s life.”
Goode says, that oftentimes the only way to find out where the children are is to contact the incarcerated parents. “There’s no one who keeps a list of where the children are in our society. So therefore, there’s nowhere to go to find a rostrum or database to say ‘these are children of incarcerated parents in this town.’ So the best way to communicate is to go directly into the prison and talk directly with the mothers and fathers who are incarcerated to … give you their names and then you can then mentor [the children] based on their names.”
The BBBS initiative has helped to prevent impressionable, isolated and disenfranchised youth from being devoured by the temptations and ills lurking around them. Studies have shown that attentive mentorship transforms young lives. “What we know is that … two hours twice a month for a least a year can change the direction of a child’s life. What we know is if that happens then two-thirds of those children will likely improve their grades, a one-third will improve their behavior, and one-third will improve their attendance at school. What we know is — if we work with these children … consistently for at least one year, we can alter the outcomes [for] these children.”
– terry shropshire
