YouthBuild USA National Mentoring Initiative

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP) National Mentoring Programs initiative is authorized by the statutes appropriating funds for fiscal year 2009. OJJDP made awards to applicants that proposed the enhancement or expansion of initiatives that will assist in the development and maturity of community programs to provide mentoring services to high-risk populations that are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, special physical or mental challenges of the targeted population, or other analogous situations identified by the community in need of mentoring services.'

The YouthBuild USA National Mentoring Initiative seeks to reduce juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, truancy and other high-risk behaviors by increasing positive college and job placement outcomes for YouthBuild participants, ages16-18, through mentoring, academic support, and career development in forty underserved communities around the nation. The projects goals are: (1) improve youth outcomes in at-risk youth mentoring programs by establishing and strengthening collaborative community approaches; (2) establish or improve the administration of mentoring programs for at-risk underserved youth, including the expansion of mentoring strategies and program design; and (3) enhance and improve the organizational capacity and system efficiency and cost effectiveness through training and technical assistance and other strategies. CF/NCF