San Diego MCP Programs Collaborate—Rather than Compete

Designing and operating a mentoring children of prisoners (MCP) program can be challenging enough without the added pressure of sharing turf with a similar program. In most areas, there is only one MCP program to deal with. San Diego, however, has three federally funded MCP programs targeting the same area: YMCA Youth & Family Services in San Diego, Metro United Methodist Urban Ministry, and Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of San Diego County.

“I think the biggest challenge with having multiple grantees in a city is the risk of duplicating efforts and of unnecessary competition,” says Christina Reyna, program director for Y-FRIENDZ, a MCP program operated by YMCA Youth & Family Services in San Diego. Y-FRIENDZ, which serves youth 4 to 15 years old, uses a community-based model to serve children countywide.

“While there are over 15,000 youth for us to serve, there are also limited financial resources and a limited number of volunteers,” she adds. “When the programs are serving the same areas, it is also challenging to create a referral and recruitment system that benefits everyone and meets the needs of the kids/families. Here in San Diego, each of our programs is countywide. Learning to coordinate these efforts is a work in progress but we are taking significant steps in the right direction.”

Recognizing that potential conflicts could arise, Y-FRIENDZ, which has been federally funded since 2004, has joined forces with the other two newly federally funded MCP programs in San Diego to create a Mentoring Children of Prisoners Coalition (MCOP). In February they invited Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. to be the guest speaker at their first Coalition Breakfast “to garner support from faith leaders and other community members to help launch this initiative in San Diego County,” says Amy Benson, program director of BBBS of San Diego County. Her agency serves children ages 7 through 18; in addition to its Amachi program, BBBS operates Bigs in Schools, Community Mentoring, High School Bigs and Operation Bigs. “It is a pleasure to be associated with these organizations who share a mission to serve these worthy children,” adds Benson.

“The magnitude of this problem in San Diego alone is so extensive, that we are hopeful that this combined effort will shed light on an issue in our communities that has gone unnoticed for far too long,” says Linda G. Womack, associate executive director of Metro United Methodist Urban Ministry. “We want to encourage and engage individuals to partner with us and embrace the problem. It is our intent to become a true village and not leave anyone behind.”

Metro is the social-service and community development arm of the 48 United Methodist Churches throughout San Diego and Imperial Counties. Metro’s “Safe Passage: Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents” program is dedicated to creating a supportive and developmental system of care that addresses all aspects of participant need. Safe Passage, which provides mentors to youth age 10 through 17, emphasizes Metro’s integrated model of service delivery by offering resources from programs that provide emergency food and clothing, workforce development, Katrina relief, at-risk youth development, prisoner re-entry, and strengthening father/child relationships.

“Partnering with the other two San Diego [MCP] grant recipients to form the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Coalition was a proactive solution to reach as many children with incarcerated parents as possible in San Diego County through our collaborative efforts,” says Benson. “We all have the same goal to help children reach their potential through supported mentoring relationships. The MCOP Coalition has discussed the expertise of each agency, and we are ready to refer to each other should we find one of the other Coalition partner agencies is better suited to serve a child.”

Spring 2007