Children and Family Risk Prevention Program

The Children and Family Risk Prevention Project seeks to provide adult role models for at-risk children living in low-income housing areas and will address poor family functioning, school performance, and the high juvenile crime rate. The project will place children in a one-to-one relationship with carefully screened mentors who will help them identify the tools to a successful and productive life. The project will recruit, screen, train, and supervise 100 volunteers to serve as mentors to 100 at-risk youth living in low-income housing areas. The project will track the family functioning and educational progress of each child, as well as all juvenile justice intervention throughout the project and for one year after project completion.
The Family Center of Columbus Inc. project proposes to assist in 1) preventing juvenile delinquency, 2) preventing child abuse and child victimization, and 3) improving family functioning for children who are most at risk of becoming system involved.

The purpose of the project is to reduce the ever growing numbers of System Involved Youth (SIY) in the community through a child's involvement with a positive adult mentor and participation in positive cultural and social activities. Additionally, the project will increase community awareness of the increasing problem of child abuse and victimization while producing an advocacy movement of children, families, and professionals to combat the problem. Also, the project proposes to improve the functioning of single parent families, and families of previous SIY whose numbers are growing annually. NCA/NCF