One-on-One Mentoring

The OJJDP FY 09 Earmarks Programs further the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Explanatory Statement Regarding H.R. 1105 (Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009), 155 Cong. Rec. H1653 (daily ed. Feb. 23, 2009) (statement by Rep. Obey, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the House).

Mentoring and Partnership for Youth Development (MPYD) provides mentoring, tutoring, employment services, self-empowerment skills, and other assistance for at-risk males attending John Muir High School (JMHS) in Pasadena, California of which mentoring is MPYD's core component. Northwest Pasadena and West Altadena are plagued with high levels of crime, gangs, juvenile delinquency, and other societal ills. JMHS, located in Northwest Pasadena, is the worst performing high school of the three high schools in the Pasadena Unified School District's. In 2006, it was taken over by the State of California due to poor performance. Issues of physical altercations, suspensions, police interventions, and other actions adverse to the learning environment increased dramatically over the last decade. There is a correlation between the overall JMHS performance and the problems of the surrounding community. MPYD has had approximately 60 students enrolled for each of the past three years. MPYD will serve youth ages 14-17 and increase the number of enrollees and attendant mentors to 100 by the end of 2010. Under this funded initiative, MPYD's goals are: (1) to increase and retain MPYD's number of mentees to 100 with a one to one mentor and mentee ratio by the end of the 2010 academic year; (2) to increase the percentage of each participant's grade point average by at least 25% by the end of his first year in the program; and (3) to improve the interpersonal relationships of students, mentors, parents, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders in the collaborative effort to improve participants' grades, attendance, test performance, and behavior. At the end of the program year, MPYD will produce an Annual Program Evaluation based on the Search Institute's 40 Development Assets for Adolescents® that will assess how well the program was implemented and the achievement of outlined objectives. NCA/NCF