Sister Helps Obtain Funds for Mentoring Program

August 13, 2004 (Pocatello, Idaho) - Sister Janice Otis, FSE, of Pocatello, learned this week that the agency for which she works, the Southeast Idaho Community Action Agency, will be receiving $300,000 over the next three years to start a mentoring program. Sister Janice was instrumental in writing the grant for these funds and her agency was among the 164 entities, and the only one in Idaho, to receive these monies from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Sister Janice will use the funds to establish a mentoring program that will pair positive adult role models with children whose family members have a history of incarceration. Sister Janice explained that "research has shown that children whose parents are or have been in prison are more likely to repeat the same behavior patterns and end up in prison themselves. The goal of the program is to break that cycle and offer another effort to assist families in southeast Idaho."