Kids program gets big grant

$2.25 million from U.S. will expand mentoring of inmates' children

By FELICIA THOMAS-LYNN
fthomas-lynn@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 9, 2006

In the largest grant ever awarded to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave the agency a more than $2 million ringing endorsement to continue its work to stem the rising tide of intergenerational incarceration.

The agency will receive $750,000 a year over the next three years to match mentors with 2,300 more children whose parents are in state or federal prison.

"This is an extraordinary gift," said India McCanse, the agency's president, who will jointly announce the award with Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty at a news conference today.

The agency is one of 76 across the nation to receive funding, and one of only two to get the largest chunk of the Mentoring Children of Prisoners grants from the department totaling $11.2 million.

"I'm pleased that the federal government realizes the significance of the problem we have here," Barrett said. "We cannot afford to not act. We are losing too many kids. We have to break the cycle, and this is a way for us to do that. This will help us stabilize and improve the city of Milwaukee."

The funds, from President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, will allow the agency to expand its Amachi program - launched three years ago with a $400,000 grant from the department - that matched more than 500 children between the ages of 6 to 17 with mentors.

With the expansion of the program, it will be renamed Children of Promise.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, without intervention, 70% of children of prisoners will go to prison themselves.

"Children are the future of the city of Milwaukee, and we know that those young people whose parents are incarcerated are in desperate need of a role model," Hegerty said. "Pairing those children with a Big Brother or Big Sister is a big step toward helping ensure they don't become delinquent."

Of the 9,439 male and 530 female prisoners in Milwaukee County, McCanse said, an estimated 5,664 are parents who have left behind more than 12,000 children.

She said children of incarcerated parents are at an increased risk for psychological and behavioral problems that include low self-esteem, anger, depression, withdrawal and feelings of abandonment.

The new grant money will enable the agency to hire 11 additional staff members for the program, including a chief marketing officer and four recruitment coordinators, one specifically targeting men.

"The future of Milwaukee children is a big piece of what this grant is about," McCanse said. "We cannot throw away another generation by sending kids to prison."