$500,000 grant awarded to Shapes Mentoring Program

A three-year grant from the Department of Health and Human Services will provide $510,000 in funding for Shapes Mentoring Program, an Assemblies of God-based ministry to children with incarcerated parents.

“Our program went from theory to reality in the first three years, and now it’s really ready to grow,” says Scott Jett, director of Shapes.

(Photo of a mentor and his mentee participating in the Shapes Bicycle Program.)

The program will expand into 21 Missouri counties, in addition to the original target areas of Greene and Christian counties. Though the program is currently only in Missouri, Jett says Shapes is available to help people anywhere in the nation start a similar outreach in their churches.

Last year, 90 percent of the mentors kept their pledge to spend an hour a week for a year with the child. In its first three years, Jett says none of the 100 kids in the program faced trouble with the law.

“Breaking the cycle of crime passed from parent to child is a key to reducing crime rates both in Missouri and nationwide,” U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri says. “It is through efforts of organizations like Shapes Mentoring Program that we can liberate these children from suffering from the same fate as their parents.”

For more information about Shapes, visit Shapes.ag.org.

—Jennifer McClure