Octavia Edinburg, Executive Director of the New Orleans-based Community Service Center, Inc. (CSC), talks about the gaping hole in the lives of these children-the absence of a parent or parents. "It's not like they're away just because they're hospitalized or something," she notes. "In many cases, the parents' behavior caused the separation from their families. Many of these kids may have been with grandparents for a long time before the incarceration. A lot of them have shaky relationships with their parents. A lot of them had no relationship with their dads before the incarceration. A lot of them live with a caregiver who may also be quite angry with the actual parent." And on top of that pain, many also live with economic, social, and emotional burdens caused by their parent's incarceration.

The individuals from four of the original grantee programs who spoke to us in 2004 represent the full range of typical grantees. They are situated in diverse areas across the country. They deal with a wide range of populations. They vary in size. Some have been operating for years, while others are just getting started. Each encompasses a diverse group of local partners, as shown in the table below:

Executive and clinical staff from these four programs shared their experiences in setting up and sustaining their operations. They discussed some of the unique challenges they face. They described some of the strategies they use to meet these challenges. And they told some compelling stories about the lives of specific children, their families, and their mentors.

WHAT ARE THE KEY COMPONENTS TO SETTING UP AND SUSTAINING A SUCCESSFUL MENTORING PROGRAM?

"Know what you want to accomplish: Figure out your mission, and hold true to it." DeAnn Sarah Brady, National Program Director of the U.S. Dream Academy, the largest and most established of the four highlighted MCP grantee programs, offers those words of advice to anyone trying to set up or sustain a successful mentoring program. Maggie Allen of Pima Prevention Partnership's midsized MCP program in Tucson agrees, adding, "Stay at it, just doing what you do. Focus on the end result-otherwise it can get overwhelming." Edinburg takes this advice one step further. As Executive Director of CSC, which has the smallest of the four highlighted MCP programs, she similarly urges staff to stay focused on their program's mission and goals and, even more important, to "be passionate about it. If it's just a passing phase, or if you think there's money in it, it won't work."

FOCUS. GOALS. PASSION. Those are the heart of a successful program. But what about its skeletal structure? Allen stresses the importance of collaborating with other community agencies as well as garnering support from the community. And Edinburg agrees: "Get affiliates, get good partners," she advises. "You'll have a lot of pieces to fill in as you go. There are things you don't realize when you start out, and those partners and affiliates will help fill in the gaps." Her program (CSC) is a perfect example of how each partner contributes its piece and how all the pieces fit together to form a solid framework for a well-functioning operation. Here's how it works:

So focus, goals, and passion provide the heart. A solid community base can provide the structure. Now how does a program reach out, beyond itself, to find the fuel to keep it going? How does it find the children of prisoners who need mentoring? How does it recruit mentors?

HOW DO THE PROGRAMS FIND AND RECRUIT MENTORS?

Finding the children does not seem to be a problem. There are so many of them out there, some programs already have waiting lists. Initially, some programs work through churches, community organizations, and family court systems. Some work through schools. Once those initial connections are established, "the names start to roll in," comments Loraine Bond, a match support specialist with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Missoula, Montana.

Finding and recruiting mentors, on the other hand, requires more creative and varied strategies. Take Pima's MCP program in Tucson. Like so many programs across the country, they want to tap into the faith community. So they arranged a luncheon for 53 people, including 33 local clergymen, to get them to commit to the recruitment process. The program featured a recruitment workshop by Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr., pioneer of the Amachi mentoring model-a model that partners secular and faith-based organizations to provide mentoring to children of incarcerated parents.

In addition to the faith community, potential recruitment sources could include businesses, retiree organizations, senior centers, human service agencies, civic clubs and lodges, service- oriented fraternities and sororities, and colleges and universities. But what works for one program doesn't necessarily work for another. For example, many programs avoid using college students, opting for more seasoned volunteers who are more likely to stay in the area. Not so for the MCP program in Missoula County, Montana. It's a program in a university town, so they go into university sociology classes and talk to the students. "Students make good mentors," says Bond, "assuming they pass our thorough screening process." She looks for students who are "adults with good decisionmaking skills and commitment." She particularly favors college juniors: they are more mature than younger students, and they are more likely than seniors to go beyond their 1-year basic commitment. Her program also recruits from the local law school, particularly firstyear students. "Even though they're busy," says Bond, "many are looking for a 2- to 3-hour activity a week to give them a good break from their studies. They can go out and play with the kids. It's refreshing for them."

As in many mentoring programs, the program is particularly successful in recruiting female volunteers. "Girls," says Bond, "have more experience babysitting. And they know you can have a close relationship with a child without being a parent. Males tend to be less sure of what they'd do with the child. A lot of guys have never interacted with kids." That's why the program uses another recruitment strategy: they ask an already established male mentor to speak about the program. "Males respond well," says Bond, "when they see another male having fun."

The much larger U.S. Dream Academy, with its many learning centers in various cities, prefers a partner-based approach. They call it looking for "4 C's partnerships": Colleges/universities, Churches, Corporations, and Community organizations. Their volunteers tend to come in groups, and they bring with them an already established support system.

WHO MAKES A GOOD MENTOR?

Naturally, all the highlighted MCP programs do careful background checks, including fingerprinting, on potential mentors. But beyond that, program staff provide a wide-ranging wish list of what they look for when screening and selecting mentors. Their ideal mentor is someone with the following characteristics:

• Consistency in their life
• A nonjudgmental attitude
• High tolerance for organizing chaos
• Life experiences that help them relate to potential mentees
• An understanding that they're there to be an adult friend, not a buddy
• Passion
• Vision
• A caring feeling about children and family
• A fun personality
• A glass that's half full, not half empty

Bond, in Missoula, particularly favors volunteers with life experiences similar to those of their mentees. Erica and Jessica's story provides the perfect example.

Erica and Jessica: A Mentor Who Can Relate

Erica, a 20-year-old public relations major at American University, says she always knew her biological father was a "bad guy." He has been in and out of jail all her life. Erica never really knew he was incarcerated until she was older and could understand what that meant. Fortunately, she had a stepfather who filled the void. When she was 18, her biological father attempted a reunion. Although Erica was anxious to make it happen, she wasn't able to develop a meaningful relationship with him because he was still living a difficult and dangerous life. To this day, he is still in and out of prison. For more than a year, Erica has been a mentor with the U.S. Dream Academy, where she has been matched with Jessica. She and Jessica have a lot in common.

A 12-year-old student in the DC area, Jessica also has a father who has been in and out of jail her whole life. She spent the first 7 years of her life in Philadelphia, but her family left when her father exhibited violent behavior toward them.

Fortunately, like Erica, Jessica has a stepdad who has tried to fill the gap left by her absent father. Jessica is a special education student and has struggled with school for many years. She has been coming to the Dream Academy for over a year. In the past year, her mom reports that she has made tremendous academic progress. In fact, the school has promoted her from the third to the sixth grade. Her mom says that Jessica always talks about her mentor and loves to bring home the arts-and-crafts projects they do together at the Dream Academy. Jessica has not been informed directly about her father's incarceration, although she is aware that her father is not around because he has done some "bad things."

Another important quality in mentors, says Edinburg (CSC), is "fun people." "These kids have to grow up early," she says, "so they need people who can give balance." She also values the "visionary" quality in people: she looks for "someone who sees that 'this child can be a doctor, a lawyer,' someone who asks, 'what can I do to bring all those wonderful qualities out?'"

Stephanie and Deborah: A Mentor Who Is Fun

"When you first came into the program, did you have a picture in your head of what your match would be like?" "Yes," responded a serious looking 7-year-old Stephanie to her case manager at the MCP in Missoula, Montana, during their first followup meeting. "Is your match like what the picture was in your head?" Again, a very serious response-this time, "No." Stephanie paused, while the case manager took a worried breath-"I didn't think it would be this much fun."

The case manager exhaled in relief. For that one moment, she had remembered the concerns voiced by Deborah, Stephanie's Big Sister. An accounting professor in her early forties, Deborah fretted that she might be too old to mentor Stephanie, whose father had been incarcerated since she was a baby. "Maybe a 7 year old would prefer someone 21," she speculated. But as the mother of two sons, who wanted some "girl energy," she decided to give it a try anyhow. And in the end, it wasn't her age, but rather her fun-loving attitude that made a difference in Stephanie's life.

Finally, Brady (U.S. Dream Academy) stresses that there is no one kind of mentor. "They might be someone who never had siblings and always wanted one. Or they might be someone with nine brothers and sisters."

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN MAKING A SUCCESSFUL MATCH?

Making a perfect mentor-mentee match is never an easy task. It is particularly challenging given the special circumstances in the lives of prisoners' children. Many volunteers, normally eager to help, are reluctant to take on special cases. For example, these children are more transient than other populations. Bond points out that she can't guarantee to a potential mentor that the child will be in place for more than 3 or 4 months, let alone a full year. If the incarcerated parent gets transferred-as is often the case-the child might very well end up moving to be closer to the new prison.

Another challenge to matching potential mentors is the transitional nature of these children's day-to-day living situations. According to Brady, many children don't have a real home. They tend to move from relative to relative. Simply finding them often takes extra time and effort.

Some programs have children with particularly serious problems. For example, many children at the Missoula program have mothers who used methamphetamine while pregnant. As a result, these children often have severe behavioral problems, extremely short attention spans, and they are often in classes for students with special needs.

Despite these challenges, our four highlighted MCP grantee programs- along with so many others-make successful matches all the time. Why? Because they know what to look for.

WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL MATCH?

What are the key things to consider during the matching process? "The personality piece," declares Allen (Pima). She believes in spending considerable time with each party individually to ensure the two are compatible. Edinburg (CSC) also looks for compatible personalities. She does so by setting up social group events, such as a holiday party, where she can observe how potential mentors interact with kids who need matches. The Exchange: March 2005

The U.S. Dream Academy takes the "personality piece" a step further. Not only do they listen to the individuals and observe potential matches in group settings, they also use a barrage of quantitative tools, such as Dr. Robert Rohm's DISC Classic Profile learning instrument, to classify and match up personality traits. "We get as much information as we can to make the best match we can," states Brady.

"Look at their activity levels," advises Missoula's Bond. "You can put two people together who may look fine personality-wise, but they also need to enjoy the same level of activity." For example, because the program is located in "outdoorsy" Montana, she always asks potential mentors and mentees whether they are indoor or outdoor people. "I would never," she explains, "match a skier or hiker with a kid who likes to watch video games."

Bond also looks for compatible interests. One of her most successful matches involves a mentor whose favorite activity is getting together with her mentee to cook dinner, bake brownies, and color. "Sometimes they even do each other's hair. They're a great match!"

Brady offers another piece of advice: "Look at their goals. Find out what they want out of the match." And she's not only talking about the mentor's goals and the child's goals. She also stresses the importance of determining the goals of the parents and any caregivers.

WHAT SUSTAINS A MENTORING MATCH?

"Lots of case management," according to Pima's Allen, who believes in calling the children, the mentors, and the family as often as two or three times a week early in the match "just to keep things going." Bond of Missoula agrees. She believes that constant monitoring, communication, and support-in the form of aggressive case management- is the key to sustaining a program. "We can get the kids. We can get the volunteers. We can make the match. But afterwards, we have to make sure the case manager knows what's going on in the match." By regularly talking to all people involved in a match, a case manager can find out what's working, what's NOT working, what's the most fun, and what's going on in their lives - thereby heading off any problems.

Bond gives some examples. During one of her regular calls, she might learn that a boy is about to visit his father in prison. So she encourages the mentor to lend an extra degree of support to the child, to the parent, and to the caregiver. She gives another example of how important it is to "know what's going on": One child told her that his mentor "wasn't in a good mood" during one of their visits. When she called the mentor, she learned that he had broken up with his girlfriend. She then helped him understand that a child needs to know that the mentor has things going on in his or her own life, that the mentor also has to struggle and deal with conflicts on a day-to-day basis.

Bond adds that the FYSB grant allows her to have plenty of contact with the families, children, and mentors with whom she works. She finds it gratifying to have adequate resources to ensure she can spend the time required to "help these matches stay afloat."

During her ongoing communication, support, and training, Bond also helps mentors develop and reinforce their skills. For example, she advises them that "You have to be able to talk to a child. Then wait as long as it takes for the child to give you the answers you want to hear. People [mentors] want these kids to tell them everything, but these kids have learned to keep these things bottled up. They need time to relax enough to talk about personal stuff."

These examples substantiate what researchers have been telling us about the three mainstays of successful programs: careful screening, orientation and training, and strong support and supervision of mentors.

WHO ELSE-BESIDES THE PROGRAM, MENTOR, AND MENTEE-CAN ENHANCE A HIGH-QUALITY MENTORING RELATIONSHIP?

It's not just the program. It's not just the mentor. For a child to get the maximum benefit from a mentoring relationship, everyone has to "buy in." That includes the incarcerated parent, and it includes the caregiver. And there's a side benefit to those parties: the more they invest in encouraging the mentoring relationship, the more they get out of it themselves. Take the case of Elsa's children .

Elsa's Children: Everyone Contributes, Everyone Benefits

Elsa had been out of prison for 3 months when, during an interview with a case manager, she thanked the Pima Prevention Partnership's mentoring program. She was grateful that her three children had been matched with three mentors while she was incarcerated. And she was grateful that they would continue their relationships even though she was "out." Those mentors, she felt, were helping her stabilize her parenting. She recognized that she was "not the best parent in the world." And she recognized that the mentors were helping her children through yet another tough adjustment- her own return into their lives.

Elsa's three children-Sarah (age 14), Seth (age 10), and Bonnie (age 7)-had gone through a major transition several months earlier, when their mother was incarcerated and they went to live with Grandma. Grandma tried her best, but she didn't have enough energy to help with all the school activities and sports. She also had to deal with many financial issues. Before long, the children began having a rough time in school. Grandma recognized that even though the children had a good home and a loving caregiver, and even though they did have contact with Elsa while she was incarcerated, each child still needed an adult with whom to do activities.

Grandma had heard about Pima's MCP program through her church, so she called. A case manager sat down with her and the three children, talked with them, and listened to what each wanted from a mentoring partnership. The program then looked for mentors whose interests and backgrounds were similar to theirs. They looked for people interested in working with children at those specific ages. They looked for people whose temperaments were compatible with the children's temperaments. And they looked for mentors who wouldn't alienate any member of the family, people who would respect the family's current living situation. After each child was matched with a mentor, the pairs started incorporating informal one-to-one activities into their regular schedules. Sometimes they would simply "hang out" at the mall. Sometimes they would go somewhere new and exciting, like a play or musical at the University of Arizona campus. Also, whenever a pair felt so inclined, they took part in group activities organized by the program: once they attended a bowling party, and once they all went up into the mountains to play in the snow. Sometimes, at Grandma's request, the case manager would coordinate simultaneous activities for all three pairs so that Grandma could have an afternoon all to herself. And so the mentoring continued, even after Elsa's release. A noticeable turnaround was evident in their situation about 6 or 7 months after the initial matches. And the family is expected to stay in the program for years to come.

In the case of Elsa's three children, Pima's MCP program attributes the positive results to three factors. First, the caregiver-in this case, Grandma- wanted the relationships to succeed, actively encouraging the children to spend time with their mentors. Second, the mother, Elsa, remained supportive of the relationships, even after her release. The program also gives itself some of the credit: by arranging activities not normally available to the children, like the performing arts excursions, they helped broaden the children's horizons.

SUSTAINING MENTORING MATCHES: SELF-ASSESSMENT Rate your mentoring program. Does your program do the following? PREPARE MENTORS AND MENTEES: c Define clear ground rules c Set a positive tone from the start c Explain the program's mission and goals to mentors c Train, support, and supervise mentors c Identify what mentors and mentees have in common SUPPORT MENTOR-MENTEE MATCHES: c Encourage mentors and mentees to see themselves as equal partners c Facilitate ongoing communication among mentors, mentees, families, and caregivers c Consider and respect the parents and caregivers c Intervene and mediate if problems arise BUILD MENTOR-MENTEE "COMMUNITIES": c Host group activities for mentors/mentees c Connect with community groups for activities c Give mentors opportunities to get to know one another c Make mentors feel they are part of a team RECOGNIZE SUCCESS: c Help mentors see the value of their work c Recognize mentor-mentee matches that work c Tell mentors and mentees how they're doing, highlighting positive accomplishments c Get participants excited about milestones and anniversaries Congratulations if you answered YES to most of these components of a successful mentoring program!

WHAT IS POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT?

When the Pima Prevention Partnership's MCP program arranged for Elsa's children and their mentors to attend cultural arts events at the University of Arizona, as described in the previous case history, they added a new element to the growing bond between each pair: by exposing the children to an environment in which the children could envision their lives developing in a positive direction, they were incorporating the strategy of Positive Youth Development. But Positive Youth Development is more than just an occasional interesting excursion. It's an attitude. It's a focus that permeates every activity, every discussion, every interaction.

The Positive Youth Development approach, endorsed by FYSB, builds on young people's strengths and places importance on their feelings of hope for their futures. The approach recognizes four main ingredients as necessary for youth to develop in a positive way:

• A sense of belonging
• A sense of usefulness
• A sense of competence
• A sense of power