BBBS of Central Ohio Forms Statewide MCP Program

Children of incarcerated parents across the state of Ohio are now benefiting from an Amachi program that once serviced only those in the Columbus area. In October 2006 Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Central Ohio received a second three-year grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its mentoring children of prisoners programs (MCP). This time, however, instead of receiving $250,000 each year, BBBS has $750,000 yearly to implement the program statewide, encompassing 64 of Ohio’s 88 counties. To reach this goal, BBBS of Central Ohio has partnered with 26 other BBBS agencies in the state.

“There’s more power in collective thought,” says Jennifer Voit, vice president of programs for BBBS of Central Ohio. “It’s just amazing the strength that comes from the group think and the group coming together to brainstorm.”

In addition to the desire to reach a larger population of children and have a more effective impact with state government, BBBS of Central Ohio received strong feedback from the state’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction that requested a centralized approach to contacting incarcerated parents. In 2004, a year after BBBS of Central Ohio received its first round of federal funding for its Amachi program, HHS funded five other organizations in the state.

“Our message from the Department of Rehab and Corrections was very clear,” says Voit. “They had five people approaching them about doing mentoring for their kids—can we come into your prisons?; can we do presentations? Their message back to us was, ‘We would love a centralized approach to this.’”

Having a statewide program also makes the relationship with Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program more effective. The Angel Tree list of children of prisoners “comes to us, and then we’re able to distribute the list to the [BBBS] agencies,” says Voit. “We’re able to send out one letter with Angel Tree to all the families, and then the agencies themselves can follow up individually within their own communities.”

In addition to administering the grant, BBBS of Central Ohio has a goal of 150 new matches between October 1, 2006 and September 30, 2007. The agency currently has about 200 active matches and is responsible for generating centralized statewide opportunities for recruitment of volunteers and children referrals. The BBBS partners can use these leads in addition to their local efforts. The goal for the entire MCP program is 430 new matches the first year and 1,539 new matches during the three-year grant period. Of the $750,000 that BBBS of Central Ohio has received, $600,000 will be distributed to their BBBS partners as match reimbursement. The partners bill BBBS of Central Ohio monthly and receive $700 on the front end and $25 per month for each existing match.

BBBS of Central Ohio has already had to start making changes to the system they developed, one of the many challenges of operating a large partnership. Despite their three years of experience operating a federally funded MCP program, Voit wishes they had been able to develop more infrastructure prior to launching the statewide program. She says they received a tentative notice of funding around the middle of September and an official notice at the end of the month. “At that point I felt six months behind,” says Voit. “We were able to do a little bit of front-end work, but there’s just so much to do and so little time.”

Despite these challenges Voit says the agency hopes to expand to closer to 80 counties in Ohio by the end of the three-year HHS grant. She has already seen interest from the handful of BBBS agencies that were not in a position to partner with them when they originally wrote the statewide proposal, says Voit.

For other organizations interested in developing a similar partnership in their states, Voit underscores the importance of flexibility. “You may have to let go of some [of your own systems] to adopt new ones or to form more improved ones,” she says. “We didn’t set out to tell the agencies how to do their programs either. We’ve offered resources and advice, but other than the real clear guidelines via HHS, we’ve kept it really broad, which I think has helped as well.”

Winter 2006