After a Year-Long Pursuit, Illinois MCP Program Finally Connects with DOC

After a year of frustration in trying to obtain children’s referrals from their state Department of Corrections (DOC), some agencies with mentoring children of prisoner (MCP) programs might have thrown in the towel. But that was not an option for Cra-Wa-La Volunteers in Probation, Inc. in Lawrenceville, Ill. “We’ve never given up,” says D. Marie Goff, its executive director. “We’ve always kept the kids first and foremost in our minds.”

Goff contacted Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr., who started Amachi in Philadelphia in 2001, for assistance after experiencing numerous roadblocks throughout 2005 while trying to connect with the appropriate person at the Illinois DOC. Although Goode did not have a personal contact at the DOC, he did know someone at a social service agency in the state who might have such a connection. Fortunately, the contact was able to facilitate an introduction between Goff and Illinois Deputy Director of Support Services Roberta Fews.

Having spent a year trying to reach this point, Goff was guardedly optimistic about any immediate results. “When we went to Director Fews we were really just hoping that we would present the program,” she says. “We thought we had maybe 15 or 20 minutes. I didn’t speak for 10 minutes before she interrupted and just said, ‘we’re doing this. I love this project. This is what we should do. This is what’s right for our families. We’re going to do this. We’re going to collaborate with these people and we’re going to form a committee.’ And right then and there she formed a state committee saying whoever was in that room was the committee.”

The newly formed relationship with the Illinois DOC not only benefits Cra-Wa-La, but similar programs in the state as well. More than a year ago Goff contacted all Illinois MCP programs that received federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about forming a MCP statewide initiative. The group first met in December 2004 and then a few more times prior to the February 2005 MCP conference in Washington D.C. The purpose of the statewide initiative was to create a protocol for approaching the DOC and a plan for sharing resources by creating a single Illinois MCP referral brochure, set of billboards, and assortment of advertisements.

Many of the Illinois MCP programs were understandably shocked to get the good news from Goff in February. It had been a year since the statewide initiative had set the goal of working with the DOC and many thought it was never going to come to fruition. But Goff never had a doubt that things would eventually work out. “Our perseverance, tenacity, [and] willingness to just keep on keeping on is what’s going to turn this around so that we can help the children,” she says.

At the February meeting, Goff and DOC personnel discussed the logistics involved in going into the prisons and making presentations to the inmates. As Goff reports, “They immediately said, ‘why should we have you guys train us and then us do that, why don’t we just have you guys come inside?’ And the director said ‘we can arrange that’.” The committee is creating a statewide referral form and “a poster with all the programs so the counselors can just look at the map and know which county their inmate’s from and know if it has a program and who the contact person is,” says Tammy Boose, the MCP project manager at Cra-Wa-La.

In exchange, the DOC requests that the Illinois MCP programs provide an update on the status of the applications of the inmates’ children, i.e., child successfully matched, caregiver declines program, etc. This update will be submitted to the counselors, who will then discuss the information with the inmates.

“[Fews] made a big commitment to any Illinois provider who would participate in this program,” says Goff. “In other words she would support them. She would advocate for them. She’d provide them a letter of support. She’ll be the poster child talking about the program if we need her help.” The committee is scheduled to meet again at Fews’ office on March 7.

“We’re excited,” says Goff. “We really are. We think this means great things in Illinois.”

Spring 2006