Mass Mentoring Partnership is working with MENTOR to offer 15 Massachusetts youth mentoring programs the opportunity to join Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver's Choice Program, a nationwide voucher program providing children of incarcerated parents with expanded access to mentoring services. The slide presentation provides a detailed overview about the Caregiver’s Choice program and details how mentoring programs in Massachusetts can become a part of the initiative. • Caregiver's Choice in Massachusetts is a voucher program open to qualified mentoring agencies and programs that serve a unique population: children with incarcerated parents. • Eligible programs may qualify to receive up to $1,000 for every Caregiver's Choice mentoring match they choose to serve. • This new initiative is designed to connect parents or caregivers with pre-approved, high quality mentoring programs, and financially support the resulting mentoring relationships. • Programs may sign up now to benefit. The project runs through October 1, 2010 in Massachusetts, and therefore all eligible programs must be signed up and approved by this date.

1. Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver’s CHOICE

4. Between the ages of 4 and 18 with at least one parent in a federal or state prison

5. Caregiver is a part of the mentoring program decision

6. MENTOR enrolls qualified mentoring programs.

9. Match Process

11. Access to federal dollars without large grant sizes and burdensome grant reporting

12. Experience in serving children of prisoners, allowing greater competitiveness in applying for future HHS Mentoring Children of Prisoners grants or other grant funds

14. Support one-to-one mentoring matches over a twelve month period*

15. Matches meet in person at least 4 hours per month

16. Serve children between the ages of 4 and 18 years old

17. Provide pre-match training for mentors and mentees

18. Have clear screening policies and written policies and procedures

19. Conduct FBI criminal fingerprint background checks

20. Must have at least 1 FTE paid staff dedicated to mentoring (if less than 15 matches, staffing may be less than 1 FTE)

21. Programs must have liability insurance

22. Must have a sustainability plan * School-based programs are asked to extend their commitment when school is not in session.

25. Programs will be notified on which standards were not met or if there is any incomplete information

26. Programs are given a chance to address concerns and provide complete details on their program

28. Mentoring Children of Prisoners training

31. Receipt of the signed assurances document

32. Program information now appears on approved programs list given to caregivers

33. Program is now able to accept vouchers and enroll children

37. Milestone 2 ($200) occurs at the three month juncture of the match. It focuses on the frequency and duration of match meetings and regular case management by the mentoring program.

38. Milestone 3 occurs at the six month mark. While there is no payment at this milestone, all of the criteria must be met to be eligible for the payment at milestone 4. These criteria focus on those mentioned in the previous milestone.

40. Contact Information Mass Mentoring Partnership Jeanette Weisflog 617.695.2432 jweisflog@massmentoring.org www.mentoring.org/caregiverschoice