Amachi Partners with Prison Fellowship

The Christmas season is a time of joy and celebration for many children as they anticipate hauling in the Christmas tree with their father and baking goodies with their mother. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the children of incarcerated parents. These children can go years without seeing their parents, a reality that is especially painful during Christmas.

For more than 20 years, Prison Fellowship, a national Christian ministry, has partnered with churches across the country to help ease this pain through their Angel Tree program. Each year, Prison Fellowship and church volunteers go into prisons nationwide and collect names of hundreds of thousands of children from prisoners. They then pass these names along to their partner churches that have agreed to purchase Christmas gifts for the children on behalf of their incarcerated parent. This year, Angel Tree expects to give gifts to approximately 550,000 children.

Recognizing the strengths of the Angel Tree program, Amachi officially entered into partnership with Prison Fellowship in February 2004. Under their partnership, local Prison Fellowship offices will share the names of children with local Amachi agencies that are partnered with churches. “Our strategy with Angel Tree Mentoring is to partner with those organizations and churches that share our objective,” said Drew Clyde, director of Angel Tree mentoring. “We really saw Amachi as a partner that shared our objective and fit our strategy. I’m very excited about this year and how we can contribute to the partnership between Amachi and churches.”

Children who are referred to Amachi from Prison Fellowship must be matched with a Christian mentor, according to an agreement between the two organizations. Clyde said this is in line with Prison Fellowship’s mission and that they have a responsibility to the parent. “It’s very clear with these prisoners that when they get involved in Angel Tree they know that they’re getting involved with a Christian organization, and they know that we’re giving the names of their children to a Christ-centered church,” said Clyde.

Prison Fellowship has partnerships with numerous Amachi programs across the country. Many of these agencies that are partnered with churches have received hundreds of names from their local Prison Fellowship office. At some of the Amachi sites, Prison Fellowship also provides mentor training. “Our mission at Prison Fellowship is not to mentor children of prisoners, but to equip churches to do it,” said Clyde.

“We believe the church is already called to do this, and we know there are Christ-centered churches all over this country with volunteers that have such a heart for these children; it’s just a matter of casting the vision,” said Clyde.
One by One Leadership in Fresno, Calif., shares Prison Fellowship’s vision for Amachi. They have partnered with Prison Fellowship and receive children referrals for Amachi Fresno primarily from it.

“We are looking to capitalize on the Angel Tree momentum over Christmas,” said Matthew Watson, director of the Mentor Center at One by One Leadership. “As congregations select an angel for their tree, our follow-up is, ‘Okay, great, you’ve given a box of Christmas presents, now why don’t you give something of lasting value in mentoring?’ ”

Clyde believes that churches across the country are eager about the opportunity to participate in the Angel Tree/Amachi program. “Our field staff are working with churches, and churches are so excited about answering the call,” said Clyde. “We feel it’s very clear in scripture that the Church is called to mentor the children of prisoners.”

Winter 2004