Ministry With Prisoners & Families: The Way Forward
W. Wilson Goode, DMin, MA, is the former mayor of Philadelphia, an American Baptist minister, and champion of children of the incarcerated. He has a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Doctor of Ministry from Palmer Theological Seminary. Dr. Goode has spent the past decade as special adviser to the president of Public/Private Ventures where he created and manages the Amachi Mentoring Program, the largest national effort to date working with children of the incarcerated. He is the author ofIn Goode Faith(Judson Press), andBuilding from the Group Up: Creating Effective Programs to Mentor Children of Prisoners.Charles Lewis, MSW, PhD, is a product of the African American church as the son of a Baptist pastor, the late Charles E. Lewis, Sr. Dr. Lewis is also a licensed minister and worked full time at Saint Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY from 1989 to 1995 where he served as the Men’s Ministry Coordinator under the pastorate of Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood. His encounter with many African American males involved in the criminal justice system compelled him to return to school to complete his formal education in 1992 at the age of 42. After completing his BA in psychology and MSW in clinical counseling at Clark Atlanta University, he completed his PhD in social policy analysis at Columbia University. His dissertation was titled, “The Negative Effects of Incarceration on Fathers in Fragile Families.”Dr. Lewis published an article in theJournal of Sociology and Social Welfarefrom his dissertation and has written several book chapters on African American males and incarceration. He and Harold Dean Trulear published an article inBlack Theology: An International Journaltitled, “Rethinking the Roles of African American Churches as Social Service Providers.”Dr. Lewis was an assistant professor and taught social welfare policy, research methods and data analysis courses at Howard University’s School of Social Work from 2002-2010, before joining the staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) as a senior policy advisor.Harold Dean Trulearis Director of the Healing Communities Prison Ministry and Prisoner Reentry Project of the Philadelphia Leadership Foundation. Designed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Healing Communities has been implemented in over 20 sites nationally, in partnership with such organizations as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Christian Association for Prisoner Aftercare and the National Women’s Prison Project.Dr. Trulear is an ordained American Baptist minister and serves as Associate Professor of Applied Theology and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Howard University. He also serves as a Fellow at the Center for Public Justice in Annapolis, MD. He is founding president of GLOBE (God Leading Our Best Efforts) Ministries, a youth services agency in Philadelphia and has taught religion, public policy and community studies in several institutions, including Yale University, Drew University, Hartford Seminary, Eastern University and Vanderbilt University.A graduate of Morehouse College (BA) and Drew University (PhD), Dr. Trulear has authored over seventy published monographs, articles, essays, sermons and reviews, includingAfrican American Churches and Welfare Reform(Center for Public Justice) andFaith Based Initiatives with High Risk Youth(P/PV) and writes a bi-monthly column forPrism:The Alternative Evangelical Voice.