More than 1.5 million American children - over half of them under the age of 10 - have a parent or parents in prison. Discover resources and support for programs striving to give these children the benefit of a reliable adult in their lives through a mentoring relationship. Following are some of our most relevant resources for this topic.

• CNCS Mentoring Children of Prisoners Initiative
• Faith Community and Criminal Justice Collaboration: A Collection of Effective Programs
• Performance Measurement Tools:
  • Performance Measurement Packet: Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents (DOC)
  • Accompanying Survey Scoring Sheet (XLS)
• Publications from Public/Private Ventures:
  • Building from the Ground Up: Creating Effective Programs to Mentor Children of Prisoners (The Amachi Model)
  • Amachi In Brief
  • Amachi: Mentoring Children of Prisoners in Philadelphia

Effective Practices

• Designing and implementing a mentoring program for children of prisoners
• Supporting children of prisoners and their caregivers
• Assessing risk factors for children and families of prisoners

Lending Library

• Mentor Guide for People Working with Children of Promise
• Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Bill of Rights
• Coping When a Parent is in Jail

Related Websites

• Children of Prisoners Library
• Working With Children With Parents in Prison
• Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Resources from FASTEN
• Amachi