Mentoring Services

Friends for Youth (FFY) strives to support low-income, at-risk youth in San Mateo and northern Santa Clara Counties through one-to-one mentoring, resources, and enrichment opportunities. Their services address the need for assets, adult support, tools to avoid violence and school failure, and alternatives for low-income and at-risk youth. FFY's Mentoring Services program helps mentees stay in school and avoid problems with violence, delinquency, substance abuse, and teen parenthood. FFY matches youth-in-need with adult volunteers for one-to-one mentoring; mentors spend at least three hours a week with their mentees, and they are trained volunteers who serve as positive role models, motivating youth to succeed academically and personally. In addition to one-to-one mentoring, FFY will provide monthly group activities aimed to reduce the risk of these youths taking part in delinquent, illegal, or detrimental behavior: these activities include workshops on gang prevention, drug/alcohol prevention, and conflict resolution. FFY has a detailed match strategy for matching volunteer mentors with the in-need youth; this strategy is based on written/verbal information gathered from referring agents, mentees, parents/guardians, and mentors. The relationship between the mentor and mentee is then monitored regularly by FFY staff members. Through mentoring, enrichment opportunities, community resources, staff support, and coalition involvement, FFY will work to foster innovations and advancements in juvenile justice and child protection-related practice at the community level. Based on outcome evaluation findings and lessons learned through their direct Mentoring Services, FFY's Mentoring Institute will provide products, trainings, and conferences to other mentoring programs in order to support programs that enhance juvenile justice, child protection, and delinquency prevention. In particular, data collected through their Mentoring Services program will be used in efforts to reduce child victimization as they disseminate information on tools to reduce child victimization by preventing child molestation. CA/NCF