YAWATTA SAYLES, WITH THE YOUNG LADY SHE HAS MENTORED SINCE SHE WAS 5 YEARS OLD, RONNEA HARRIS. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
When the light bulb turns on, it’s a wonderful sight.
That’s according to Anna Hollis Kander, the executive director of Amachi Pittsburgh, who watches the proverbial light bulb turn on time after time with her high-schoolers involved in Amachi’s “Ambassadors” program.
The Amachi Ambassadors program is geared toward Pittsburgh-area high school students who have an incarcerated parent or family member. It’s one of the many programs Amachi Pittsburgh has to help children and families through the tough time—whether it’s months or years—of navigating life without their loved one(s) due to incarceration. Amachi Pittsburgh is 20 years in the making, as they celebrated the organization and its mission during an event, Nov. 14, at Circuit Center on the South Side. The event was called, “Amachi Hachi Pachi: Legacy of Impact Celebration.”
M. GAYLE MOSS, AN HONOREE, CENTER, WITH HER PASTOR AND FIRST LADY OF HER CHURCH.
“They can be a part of the change,” Hollis Kander told WAMO Radio’s Kiki Brown in an interview that aired in early November. High-schoolers’ “voices and experiences matter, they have a lot of powerful stories (to tell). They have meaning.”
Hollis Kander said the high school students in the program learn about civic engagement, political education, the school-to-prison pipeline, how to use their “voice,” storytelling, “and we engage them in a number of different activities that help them understand their own personal agency to make change happen.”
ANNA HOLLIS KANDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF AMACHI PITTSBURGH, WITH A PROCLAMATION FROM THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH MAYOR’S OFFICE (BROTHER MELVIN HUBBARD EL PRESENTING). (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
For Amachi’s family support program, Amachi provides workshops to strengthen the parent-child relationship and increase healthy family functioning involving children and the custodial and incarcerated parents, case management sup port, distribution of food and supplies, and reunification support when parents return home from incarceration.
Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services found that there were 11,969 children aged 18 or under who had a parent incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail between Jan. 1, 2021 and Sept. 30, 2022. During that time frame, 5,220 parents were incarcerated. At the time of the parent’s incarceration, most of the children were between the ages 6 and 12 (40 percent). Next were children 1 to 5 years old (28 percent), then teens 13-17 (24 percent). Eight percent of the children were less than a year old at the time of their parent’s incarceration.
KIDS PERFORMING ON STAGE. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
In a Performance Audit Report by the City of Pittsburgh Office of the Controller Corey O’Connor, obtained by the New Pittsburgh Courier and dated February 2023, the county’s Department of Human Services said its research confirmed what many people already knew—that “children of incarcerated parents need special care to mitigate the negative consequences that parental incarceration has on this vulnerable population.” The DHS said some of that special care includes “improved visiting conditions at the (Allegheny County) jail, strengthened supports for relatives who take on the role as caregiver, and enhanced services to children in emotional crisis.”
DHS and the Office of the Controller lauded organizations like Amachi Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Mercy for their tireless efforts to assist children and families of incarcerated parents. DHS awarded Amachi Pittsburgh nearly $300,000 over two fiscal years (ending in June 2021 and June 2022) for Amachi’s mentoring and ambassador programs.
Amachi Pittsburgh doesn’t just serve children and families who have a parent in the Allegheny County Jail. It could be other jails, state prisons or federal facilities.
Hollis Kander said students in Amachi’s programs have a 92 percent success rate.
Amachi is a Nigerian-Igbo word which means, “Who knows but what God has brought us through this child.” The organization began in 2000 in Philadelphia. W. Wilson Goode Sr., former mayor of Philadelphia, helped bring the organization to prominence. Amachi organizations are believed to be in all 50 states today. The Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation started Amachi Pittsburgh in late 2003.
For Hollis Kander, she began at Amachi Pittsburgh as a mentor. Two decades later, she finds herself as the face of the heralded organization, which she said on WAMO Radio (107.3 FM) helps young people and their families “to discover their greatness, their purpose and their potential.”
Sometimes, she’ll be in Harrisburg with high-schoolers in the “Ambassadors” program, and marvel at how the students can hold their own at the state capitol. “They get these random questions (from elected officials), but to stand there and be able to defend their position and speak with confidence and passion about what they need, to make demands on what they need in their world, it’s amazing to watch this happen.”
M. GAYLE MOSS
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