The DREAM Program's Adult-to-Youth Village Mentoring Program

The DREAM Program, Inc. (DREAM) has a 25-year record of providing
evidence-informed mentoring to youth in low-income households across 26 predominantly
project-based housing developments in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. DREAM
will manage the grant and the operations of the Village Mentoring Project (the Project).
DREAM will grow and enhance an innovative mentoring model, “Village Mentoring,” to open
up new pools of mentors and reach the most vulnerable youth around the northeast and mid-
Atlantic. Targeted communities will be located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. Village Mentoring is a combination
of one-on-one and team mentoring, with the goal of building protective factors for youth most at
risk for delinquency. A single Village Mentoring site includes undergraduate mentors from a
nearby university in partnership with a group of families and youth from a local affordable
housing neighborhood.

The Project's target population is youth ages 6–17 in high-poverty, underserved neighborhoods
with Adverse Childhood Experiences. DREAM reaches these youth by partnering with the
resident councils and management agencies of affordable housing developments. As a result of
this project, youth mentees across 56 low-income housing sites will have more supportive social
environments that will reduce the likelihood of youth engaging in high-risk behaviors and
becoming involved in the juvenile justice system.