Little Moments, Big Magic
One Child at a Time
By Rob Walter
A grandfather, father, and son all meet for the first time in prison. The above picture is a shocking example of what is taking place across the country - an intergenerational cycle of crime. Studies show that without intervention, 70% of children of prisoners will wind up behind bars as well.
The key words are "without intervention."
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston is working to intervene. "Amachi Texas" is a new program aimed at reaching out to these children to break the cycle of incarceration. The purpose is to help children with one or both parents in prison reach their full potential through one-to-one mentoring relationships. Amachi is a West African word that means, "Who knows but what God has brought us through this child."
The program's founder is himself the child of a prisoner - and a prime example of what intervention can do for a child. Reverend Dr. Wilson Goode's father went to jail when he was fourteen while he was living on a rural farm in North Carolina. A year later, with his father still behind bars, the family relocated to Philadelphia, where a high school counselor told him the best he could hope for was to work in a factory for the rest of his life.
"My high school counselor said, 'You are not college material,'" said Goode. "But I had, at my local church, a pastor and wife who became my big brother and my big sister, who encouraged me not to listen about not being college material, and sent me off to Morgan State University. I graduated with high honors, and went on to get a master's, and a doctorate. I also became mayor of the fourth largest city in the country."
Rev. Dr. Goode was elected mayor of Philadelphia in 1983. In 2001 he helped start the Amachi program, which is modeled on the Big Brothers Big Sisters method of mentoring. In January of this year Texas became the first state in the union to implement the Amachi program statewide. The Office of Governor Rick Perry gave Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas a $3.78 million dollar grant to fund the program as a public-private partnership. The first phase will match mentors with 1,300 Texas children of incarcerated parents.
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