Eight years after his second term as mayor of Philadelphia, at age 62, the Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr., earned a doctorate of ministry and assumed the leadership of Amachi, a nonprofit created to provide mentors for children who have a parent in prison or jail.  Dr. Goode rallied pastors in predominantly African-American communities to encourage church members to serve as mentors.  To date, mentors have served more than 30,000 children -- and research suggests that without intervention, 70 percent of these children would follow their parents to jail.

Dr. Goode was recently named one of five $100,000 winners of the Purpose Prize for social innovators over 60.  Dr. Goode talked with Jean Case about how growing up with a father in prison, being mayor of the nation's fifth largest city, and serving as a minister for the past 40 years provided the perfect training for his current role in providing adult mentors to the 7.3 million children of prisoners in the United States.

In this discussion, Dr. Goode says, "I went to a prison and saw a grandfather, a father, and a grandson in the same jail at the same time, and the grandson said to me when I was leaving, 'I have a son that I have not seen.  I guess I'll see him in jail too.'  I am just obligated at this point to use all of my experience, all of the talent I have…to help save as many children as I can."


Q&A with Jean Case

JEAN CASE:  Could you give me just a brief overview of your work with Amachi?  Where you are today, and how did you get started?

DR. GOODE:  The Amachi program actually was the birth child of Dr. John DiIulio from the University of Pennsylvania, and he persuaded the Pew Charitable Trust to fund it back in 1999 as a demonstration, and I came aboard in September 2000, six years ago, only with a concept, not with anything at all done, but just an idea that people of faith and people from congregations throughout the city and in the country could, in fact, provide mentors for children with one or both parents in jail.  Read more.