Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

HANNIBAL, MO. -- Douglass Community Services in Hannibal needs "a few good men"...and women.

It's beginning a project called Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents.  The program needs 60 volunteers to help.

Program Coordinator Bonnie Garkie says there is a great need for mentors for vulnerable children facing social and economic struggles.

In fact seven percent of children in the Hannibal head start program have a parent or both parents in jail or prison.

Garkie says studies show children with mentors are less likely to use drugs and alcohol...and are less prone to turn to violence.

Meanwhile the prison and jail population is growing by six percent a year.

The hope is mentors will help kids with criminal parents avoid the cycle of crime and drug abuse later on in life.

Mentors would spend an hour a week with their designated child, doing anything from hanging out at home, to fishing.

Garkie says the important thing is the time spent developing relationships with the children who need an understanding adult.

The goal is to match 60 children with mentors in Marion and Ralls counties this year.

If you can be a mentor, call the office at (573) 221-3890 ext. 256 or 264