United Methodist Men to develop Amachi, a program matching church congregants with youth whose parents are incarcerated.

by Rich Peck*

The national Commission on United Methodist Men has moved ahead in several major areas of work, including launching its new relationship with Big Brothers Big Sisters. The National Association of Conference Presidents of United Methodist Men acted on those priorities during its early March meeting in Nashville.

Mentoring children

On March 4, the commission publicly signed a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to develop Amachi, a program matching church congregants with youth whose parents are incarcerated. "Amachi" is a Nigerian word that means, "Who knows but what God has brought us through this child?" Big Brothers Big Sisters is located in 5,000 communities around the country. The signing ceremony took place during a plenary session of the National Association of Conference Presidents of United Methodist Men.

"This is an historic day for our organizations," said Larry Coppock, a commission staff executive. "The partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters' Amachi affords United Methodist Men an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young men in our church communities." The commission will begin the program with pilot projects in one annual (regional) conference in each of the five United Methodist jurisdictions in the United States. Following those, the program will be launched nationwide.

"Big Brothers Big Sisters is building real, meaningful and productive partnerships with institutions in the hope business," said the Rev. Mark Scott, director of mentoring partnerships for the Philadelphia-based organization. "The core mission of both the Big Brothers Big Sisters and United Methodist Men is that a child's tomorrow can be much better than today. We play an important role in creating that better tomorrow."

The organization estimates about 700,000 parents and guardians - primarily mothers and grandmothers - are rearing children while a parent is incarcerated. The organization has matched 6,300 children of prisoners with adults. Its goal is to serve 25,000 children who have incarcerated parents by the end of 2007.

Fighting hunger

In 2005, units of United Methodist Men, in partnership with the Society of St. Andrew, led more than 9,000 volunteers into farmers' fields to pick up more than 3.7 million pounds of food for America's hungry. At the same time, through their Meals for Millions contributions, the men provided another 5.7 million pounds of fresh produce for the hungry through the society's Potato Project. The salvaged food together resulted in 28.2 million servings of food for hungry Americans.

During their March meeting, the association of conference presidents urged local units of United Methodist Men to participate in the national Hunger Awareness Day on June 6 and to conduct worship services on hunger-related issues on a Sunday near that date. The men also agreed to participate in the U.N.-sponsored World Food Day on Oct. 14.

*Peck is the communications coordinator for the Commission on United Methodist Men