HHS News Release

The Department of Health and Human Services today announced that $10 million will be made available to qualified organizations to train adult volunteers as mentors to children whose parents are incarcerated. These grants are part of President Bush's initiative to provide mentors for disadvantaged youth who are making the critical transition from childhood to adolescence.

"To develop into healthy, productive adults, children need the influence of strong adult role models, but children with incarcerated parents often lack such role models, at least temporarily," said Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services. "This new program will create many new opportunities to match children with loving, encouraging mentors who will help them through a difficult time in their lives."

Between 1991 and 1999, the number of children with a parent in a federal or state correctional facility increased by more than 100 percent, from about 900,000 to about 2,000,000. Further, fewer than 50 percent of prisoners receive regular visits from their children, either because the caregiver chooses not to visit or lacks the resources to make the sometimes-long trip. In addition, the consequences for children whose parents are imprisoned can be devastating: studies show that they have seven times the chance of becoming incarcerated as the general population.

Community and faith-based organizations, prison systems, and tribal, state and local governments are eligible to apply for the grants. Grantees will respond to referrals from a variety of sources--parents, caretakers, schools, courts, social service agencies or religious congregations. The mentoring organization will set up and monitor the matches between mentors and children. These mentors must have received training and will be overseen and supported by the organization as challenges arise. The mentoring organization must make sure that all potential mentors have been screened for child and domestic abuse and other criminal history. Each mentor will be required to make at least a one-year commitment with, at a minimum, once weekly contact with the child with whom he or she is matched.

"This initiative targets one of the most underserved and most disadvantaged groups among us," said Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., assistant secretary for children and families. "As a society we now have a real opportunity to intervene with children who face great risks and make a lasting difference in their lives."

The deadline for application is July 15, 2003. Information on how to apply for a grant and whom to contact for more information can be found at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb.